Emma Raducanu earns important boost for US Open defence after Williams and Azarenka wins

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Emma Raducanu has earned a boost in the rankings ahead of the US Open following her successful week in Cincinnati. The Brit is back up to No 11 in the world after stunning former world No 1s Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka at last week’s Western & Southern Open.

Raducanu is just seven days away from beginning the mammoth task of defending her US Open title. The 19-year-old made tennis history when she became the first qualifier ever to lift a Grand Slam title in Flushing Meadows almost a year ago, winning ten consecutive matches without dropping a set.

The Brit has struggled with mixed results since, going 15-18 in wins and losses, but finally found her best form in Cincinnati last week as she earned two of the biggest wins over her career over Williams and Azarenka. Raducanu needed just 64 minutes to dispatch the 23-time Grand Slam champion 6-4 6-0 days after Williams announced she would soon be retiring.

And the British No 1 returned to the Centre Court less than 18 hours later to pick up exactly where she left off, winning a second-consecutive bagel set en route to a 62-minute 6-0 6-2 victory over the two-time Australian Open champion. It was Raducanu’s debut in Cincinnati, and she fell to top-ranked American Jessica Pegula in the following round but left full of confidence.

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The US Open champion will now be feeling even more positive about her upcoming title defence after climbing two spots in this week’s rankings update to No 11 in the world – just one spot away from her career high. Raducanu explained how she had managed to find her US Open-winning form just in time during last week’s Western & Southern Open.

“In the past year, I think it’s probably the first tournament or one of the few tournaments that I have actually started going for my shots more,” she admitted after her 7-5 6-4 loss to Pegula. “I think that recently I was kind of playing and hoping they would miss, and I think I was pushing the ball around a lot more.” 

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The Bromley teenager admitted that she had been too passive in her technique in the year since winning the US Open, adding: “I kind of just got tired of pushing the ball around and having people hit the ball and they’d run me around. I was just, like, ‘Look, I have tried that for pretty much a year.’

“If I’m going to lose, I’m probably going to lose anyway pushing the ball around at this level. It just doesn’t work. I’m just going to do it and give this tournament a swing. And it worked.” The revelation has come at the perfect time for the 19-year-old, who will now be the woman to beat in New York next week as she attempts to defend her US Open crown.

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