Emma Raducanu didn’t have the most ideal preparation for this year’s Roland Garros and it showed in her match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Raducanu got her first taste of proper clay tennis this year. She expressed excitement about the surface, admitting that she thinks it could be a surface that could really suit her style of play.
She certainly had her moments, but unfortunately, like many times before, her body betrayed her quite a bit. At the Italian Open, Raducanu was forced to retire in her match against Bianca Andreescu due to back issues.
She didn’t have any back issues in her first match at the French Open, winning a tight match over Linda Noskova. In the second round of the event, however, she faced Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who proved to be a problem for her.
Sasnovich was the player that snapped her winning streak in 2021, the streak that started at the US Open. It happened at the Indian Wells Open, which was held in October of 2021 after being moved from its usual date.
Now on clay, Sasnovich once again proved a problem for Raducanu even though initially, the British player seemed to have found solutions. She won the opening set 6-3, but as the match went on, things got complicated for the Brit.
She lost the second set 1-6. However, in the second set, it was mostly the great performance of the Belarusian that mirrored the result.
Sasnovich hit 19 winners and only 4 unforced errors, while her opponent couldn't hit more than 4 winners and made 7 unforced errors, which resulted in a swift 6-1 win in just 35 minutes.
The final set didn’t go much better as Raducanu lost that one 1-6 as well, and much of what went wrong for her was largely self-inflicted because she couldn’t keep the ball in play.
It was a disappointing outing for Raducanu but also a huge learning experience as she continues to learn on the fly. There were positives in the match, even with the loss.