NEW YORK (AP) — Emma Raducanu’s protection of her stunning 2021 U.S. Open championship ended with 6-3, 6-3 loss to Alizé Cornet within the first spherical on Tuesday evening.
Raducanu is barely the third girl to lose her opening match in New York a yr after profitable the title. The others had been 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and 2016 champion Angelique Kerber.
Raducanu handled blisters on her racket-holding proper hand and took a medical timeout after the primary set for therapy from a coach.
She additionally was merely outplayed by Cornet, a 32-year-old from France who ended Iga Swiatek’s 37-match profitable streak at Wimbledon.
A yr in the past, at age 18, Raducanu arrived at Flushing Meadows ranked one hundred and fiftieth to take part in solely the second main event of her nascent profession. She wound up making it via qualifying and profitable 10 matches in a row en path to turning into the primary qualifier to win a Grand Slam title.
In 2022, she misplaced within the second spherical at every of the primary three majors. Nonetheless, she was seeded eleventh on the U.S. Open.
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Extra AP protection of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
