‘A box of balls and headed straight to the practice court,’ Emma Raducanu’s response after a bagel and drubbing received in Sydney


‘A box of balls and headed straight to the practice court,’ Emma Raducanu’s response after a bagel and drubbing received in Sydney

Emma Raducanu

Emma Raducanu played her first competitive match in over two months on Tuesday at the Sydney International. The US Open 2021 champion received a thorough thrashing at the hands of Ukrainian, Elena Rybakina in the first round.

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Emma Raducanu was defeated in straight sets by a score-line of 6-0, 6-1. The Briton looked nowhere close to her best, as Rybakina made the match look like almost a no-contest. However, Raducanu is not too affected by the loss, and instead went straight to the practice courts.

In her post-match interview, the youngster stated that she wanted to correct her mistakes right away, hence she decided to head to the court. At the end of the day, she feels better about her preparation in lead up to the Australian Open 2022.

After the match I got a box of balls and went straight to the practice court. I felt like I could have done some things better in the match, and I wanted to try and fix it straightaway, just leave with a better feeling about it,” said Raducanu.

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Emma Raducanu confident of brushing aside poor performance in Sydney

Emma Raducanu
Emma Raducanu

Emma Raducanu played her first competitive match since November 9, last year where she was defeated by X. Wang of China in three sets at Linz Open. She accepted the fact that she was a bit rusty to begin with, but is confident of putting the disappointment behind her.

“Yesterday was pretty much like my second time playing competitive points for like two months, even in practice,” she said.

Emma Raducanu has about a week’s time to prepare for the Australian Open 2022, which commences from January 17. There will be a lot of pressure on the Briton, given that she is the reigning US Open champion. This will be only her third appearance in the main draw of a Grandslam.

I’m confident that I can brush it off and just keep going, keep working, and next week I’ll have a bit of match experience under my belt,” Raducanu added.

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