US Open 2022: England's Emma Raducanu, who had a fairytale journey in the 2021 US Open has failed to complete her title defence this year after losing in the opening match. Raducanu faced France's Alize Cornet and lost in straight sets by 6-3, 6-3. The 19-year-old defending champion was not at her best in the opening set but had a good start in the second before ending up on the losing side.
In the first set, Raducanu broke first and took a lead but France's veteran soon equalized 1-1 after breaking the defending champion. Cornet put her A Game and broke the Briton player again to lead 4-2 before winding up the set by 6-3.
In the second set, Raducanu got a brilliant start as she led 3-1. It looked like Raducanu could be able to level back the set but the veteran used all her experience. Cornet first levelled Raducanu 3-3 and took a 4-3 lead after breaking the British player. She took the next game and Raducanu served to stay in the match. However, she was denied as Cornet defeated her and marched into the next round.
Raducanu has now become only third woman after Svetlana Kuznetsova and Angelique Kerber in failing to defend their US Open title and crashing out in the first round in the following year.
It was nearly a year back when Emma Raducanu, a qualifier, took the Tennis world by a storm when she surprised everyone to win the 2021 US Open. She was up against some heavyweights in women's Tennis including Belinda Bencic (Quarterfinal) and Maria Sakkari (Semifinal). It is also noteworthy that the then 18-year-old teenager had won all her matches in US Open 2021 without dropping a set.
Meanwhile, in the US Open 2022, Rafael Nadal, Diego Schwartzman and Belinda Bencic won their opening rounds. Nadal defeated Australia's Rinky Hijikata after losing the opening set. He then made a comeback to win the next three. The final scoreline read 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 in Nadal's favour.
Whereas Schwartzman earned a walkover after USA's Jack Sock retired in the match due to injury. Sock was leading the match 6-3, 7-5, 0-6, 0-1. Bencic got the better of Germany's Andrea Petkovic in three sets. Bencic won the first and the third set. The final scoreline read 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in favour of Bencic.
