Emma Raducanu famously opted against playing more tennis ahead of the 2024 US Open, and she paid the price for it as she lost in the first round, which devastated her.
The Brit arrived in the United States early for the Citi Open in Washington, where she played well. She made the quarter-final of the WTA 500 event, which she lost to Paula Badosa, but overall, it was a very positive week for her.
She didn't play in Toronto the following week because she felt it would be too much too soon, but she didn't play in Cincinnati either. Raducanu explained that she made that decision after consulting with her team, who collectively thought preparing in London would be better than waiting for the US Open in New York.
To play in Cincinnati, Raducanu would have had to take part in the qualifiers, and that didn't seem too appealing to her. She later clarified that she has nothing against playing the qualifiers, but her actions certainly say something else.
The 2021 US Open winner arrived from London to the United States only a few days before the event and felt confident heading into the New York Slam. It's an important event for her, and she wanted to do well at Flushing Meadows, but it didn't go as planned.
Sofia Kenin was her first opponent, and the American proved better, beating Raducanu in a very competitive three-set match. The Brit was devastated by the loss, admitting after the match that she hoped to do well at the event. She will analyze the match and see where things went wrong.
"I feel down, like I feel sad. This is a tournament I really want to do well in. I’m just going to go back to the drawing board and train and analyse 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."
Surprisingly, Raducanu essentially walked back everything she said ahead of the US Open. She admitted that she was confident heading into it despite not having played that many matches as preparation.
It's been almost a month since Raducanu last played before the match against Kenin, and she admitted after the match that she would have preferred to play more, which is very different from what she said before the match.
"I would have preferred to probably play a little bit more before coming into the US Open. I know when I have a lot of matches, just like every player, you feel really good, you feel like everything’s automatic."
Raducanu could have had that if she had played in the qualifiers in Cincinnati, but as she said afterward, it's something she can learn from. Time will tell if she actually does learn anything from it.
"I can learn from it. And, you know, manage my schedule slightly differently. It wasn’t just me. It was more of like a collective call and that’s what happened, and I can’t really change it."
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