"I would love to win a title, doesn't matter at what level" - Raducanu honest ahead of Seoul
WTA
Emma Raducanu was honest about her goals for the rest of the season ahead of the Korea Open in Seoul.
The tournament in Seoul will be Raducanu's second event since her US Open title defense that ended in an opening-round loss to Alize Cornet, who also defeated Iga Swiatek this year at Wimbledon.
Raducanu's first appearance since the year's final Grand Slam was at the Slovenia Open. She won her first-round match against Dayana Yastremska, although it ended in strange scenes when the Ukrainian retired just two points away from defeat.
The No. 1 seed at the Slovenia Open exited in the next round after being stunned by Anna-Lena Friedsam. That halted any chance of Raducanu building momentum after a challenging season so far.
Although 2022 has been tough for the 19-year-old, her coach, Dimitry Tursunov, who began working with Raducanu in July, continues to speak positively and thinks she is a good person.
Ahead of her first match in Seoul, Raducanu admitted she would love to win a title and does care if it comes at a lower level than Grand Slams or WTA 1000 tournaments.
“I would obviously love to win a title, and to be honest, I think that it doesn’t matter at what level. I think now just playing a lot of matches is something that I could really benefit from."
Raducanu also spoke in a calm and reasoned way about her 2022 season. The 2021 US Open champion feels it has been a development year, which she previously skipped with her shock run at Flushing Meadows last year.
“I know that I was meant to go through the development year at some stage, and I completely skipped it last year, so I know that I need to do the hard yards now. And it’s sort of payback for winning the US Open with very little practice or work.”
