Last year, Emma Raducanu made tennis history when she became the first woman from Great Britain to win the U.S. Open. It was a remarkable story of a young woman who went from qualifier to winner of the women's singles. On Tuesday, Raducanu made history once again. This time, it was not the kind you want to make.
Emma Raducanu lost in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 to Alize Cornet in the first round of the tournament. She joins only Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2005 and Angelique Kerber in 2017 to be defending champions who would lose in the first round one year later.
Defending champion Emma Raducanu falls in two sets to Alize Cornet in the First Round of the US Open.
In the Open Era (since 1968), the only other women’s defending US Open champions to lose in the opening round are Svetlana Kuznetsova (2005) and Angelique Kerber (2017). pic.twitter.com/N2ebjLNzjC
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 31, 2022
Both Raducanu and Cornet struggled to serve consistently Tuesday night. There were five breaks of serve in the first set alone. Following the first set, Raducanu called for a medical timeout to work on her blisters she sustained in practice prior to the tournament.
This is obviously a very disappointing and shocking end to Raducanu's tournament. She entered among the favorites. Instead, she is heading home early.
Raducanu was coming off of a loss to American Jessica Pagula at The Cincinnati Open in the round of 16. In fact, since winning the U.S. Open last year, Raducanu has really struggled. She consistently has been getting bounced out of tournaments early.
But she is known as a very good hard court player. All of the 19-year-old's titles have come on the hard court. Raducanu entered this year's tournament ranked 11th in the world. Her peak ranking came earlier this year when she reached 10th in the world.
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