Emma Raducanu cries after devastating US Open loss, confesses mistake she made

Raducanu became very emotional after crashing out of the US Open in the first round following a loss to Sofia Kenin.

Emma Raducanu didn’t hide her sadness following an early US Open exit as the 21-year-old Briton candidly admitted through tears that she felt “down” and that she could have probably done some things differently leading up to the US Open.

On Tuesday evening, Raducanu officially returned to the US Open after previously missing the tournament last year due to multiple surgeries. Unfortunately for the 2021 US Open champion, it was all but a targeted or desired comeback after world No. 54 Sofia Kenin handed her a 6-1 3-6 6-4 loss to send her packing out of New York after only one match played.

While 2020 Australian Open champion Kenin is also a Grand Slam champion, the American had won just two out of her eight last matches going into the Raducanu clash. But even though Kenin wasn’t in impressive form, Raducanu still didn’t manage to get the job done and instead picked up back-to-back first-round losses at Flushing Meadows – the Briton also lost to Alize Cornet in the 2022 US Open first round.

When the match started, Raducanu saved two break points in the opening game before stunningly losing the next six games and the first set. Down by a set, Raducanu blew an early second-set break but managed to get two other breaks in the rest of the set and still routinely forced a decider.

The third set was the closest set as there wasn’t much separating the two but it was Kenin who managed to get the only break of the set in the fifth game and that was enough for the American to seal the win.

“I feel down, I feel sad. Obviously, this is a tournament I really want to do well in so… after the first set I was outplayed completely and I think I did well to equal it. The third set was pretty high-level tennis and I think certain parts of my game in dealing with her speed of shot, dealing with her pace, certain parts I actually executed better than in previous matches. I came across a very in-form opponent, and she played really well,” Raducanu said after the match.

Raducanu admits the mistake she probably made

In the weeks before the US Open, Raducanu faced a lot of criticism and scrutiny over only playing Washington and skipping Toronto and Cincinnati. The critics argued that it was a bad scheduling decision and that the lack of matches could come back to haunt the former world No. 10.

And against Kenin, it was evident at some moments that Raducanu was lacking match-form. Afterward, the 21-year-old confessed that there were some mistakes on her part but vowed to return to the practice and try to do better next time.

“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. You know, 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 my manage my schedule slightly differently,” Raducanu admitted.

“I’m just going to go back to the drawing board and train and analyze where I went wrong and try and improve for the rest of the season. Obviously the Slams are over for this year, but it’s not actually that long until Australia comes around again.”

Raducanu previously dismissed her schedule as a concern

After arriving in New York, Raducanu addressed the scrutiny she was facing over playing in just one tournament before the final Grand Slam of the season. And when doing so, the British tennis player insisted that it wasn’t an issue at all and that she felt comfortable with the work she had done on the practice court.

“Even when I won the US Open, I only played a few tournaments that year. Yes, they were closer together, but I´m not in any big rush to play those. I think I´d rather target tournaments and play the tournaments that I´m entered in. I don´t think I´ll ever be the player who´s playing, like, close to 30 events a year. I think that´s not my style. It never has been,” Raducanu said just before the start of the US Open.

“I think that´s such an epic achievement and these two weeks I completed it. So for me coming back here now, I come back with such a different outlook and just joy and promise, and it inspires me to want to do more.”

Raducanu will now probably take some time off to mentally recover from what happened at the US Open and then switch her focus to the indoor swing.