Emma Raducanu suffered a humbling 62-minute defeat to former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina at the US Open. And Cam Norrie will now have to beat Novak Djokovic in the Friday night session here to avoid all the British singles players going out before the fourth round.
British No.1 Raducanu had entered her clash with the No.9 seed hopeful of showing she is closing the gap on the big stars. She appointed Rafa Nadal’s former coach Francis Roig last month and she took a set off world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka at the Cincinnati Masters.
But after twice breaking her record for her fastest Grand Slam wins against qualifiers in the opening two rounds, the Kazakh-born Russian simply outclassed her as world No.36 Raducanu showed she still has a long way to go to compete with the top players on this stage. She dropped her opening service against the onslaught of heavy hitting from Rybakina and Raducanu never recovered.
Even the presence of British Vogue editor-in-chief – and tennis super fan – Anna Wintour or constant urgings of Roig from the player box could inspire the 22-year-old. “Change something,” appealed the Spaniard.
In her four Grand Slams this year, she has lost to Iga Swiatek (6-1 6-0 and 6-1 6-2), Sabalenka (7-6 6-4) and now this 6-1 6-2 defeat.
Rybakina only made 46% of first serves and hit two aces but sent down one delivery of 118mph and did not face a break point. She hit 23 winners
Raducanu was broken twice in each set and hit only eight winners against 17 unforced errors.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion broke Raducanu twice in the opening set and took her second set point with a service winner after only 27 minutes.
The Bromley-based star ended a run of losing five consecutive games – she dropped her serve form 40-0 in the first game of the second set – when she won the third game of the second set after finding three first serves.
Rybakina, who is now a contender for the title, after Raducanu sent a second serve return long on the first match point.
Norrie will bid to end his run of six consecutive losses against Djokovic in the first match in the Arthur Ashe Stadium at midnight UK time.
Last year’s semi-finalist Jack Draper pulled out with an arm injury while Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal, Fran Jones, Billy Harris and Jacob Fearnley all went out in the first two rounds.
