Emma Raducanu has shown glimpses this summer of the player who shocked the world by winning the 2021 U.S. Open without dropping a set.
But she was not able to turn that into another magical run at Flushing Meadows as she crashed out of the grand slam with a first-round loss to Sofia Kenin on Tuesday night.
Raducanu was emotional afterward, as she has yet to record a U.S. Open victory since winning the title.
“I feel down. I feel sad,” Raducanu, 21, said while fighting back tears. “Obviously, this is the tournament I really want to do well in. “
Raducanu lost in 2022 in the first round to Alize Cornet and missed the event last year due to injury.
She seemed to put the injury concerns behind her this summer when she made a run to the fourth round of Wimbledon last month and followed that up by reaching the quarterfinals of the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.
However, she then surprisingly skipped the rest of the hard court season, opting not to play in Montreal or Cincinnati.
“I was maybe a bit slow starting. Yeah, I would have preferred to probably play, a little bit more before coming into the US Open,” Raducanu said Tuesday when asked about her scheduling.
“I know when I have a lot of matches, just like every player, you feel really good. You feel like everything’s automatic. So, yeah, I think I can learn from it. And, you know, I may manage my schedule slightly differently.”
Kenin, 25, dominated the first set 6-1 before Raducanu bounced back to take the second, 6-3.
Raducanu double-faulted to hand Kenin — the 2020 Australian Open champ — the first break of the third set.
Kenin did not face much stress in her final three service games as she secured the match and advanced to the second round to face sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula.
“I did really well to get myself back in the match,” Raducanu said. “After the first set — where I was outplayed completely — I did well to equal it.
“In the third set, it was on serve to 2-all and it was pretty high-level tennis. I think certain parts of my game dealing with her speed of shot, her pace I executed better than I had previous matches. I came across a vey in-form opponent and, yeah, she played pretty well.”