Dominant Emma Raducanu races into US Open third round with fastest win

Do not get too carried away for now. Emma Raducanu may have made her most comfortable start to a grand-slam tournament since her famous triumph at the 2021 US Open, but it has involved two matches against qualifiers ranked outside the world’s top 100.

Nonetheless, the 22-year-old’s performances so far here do make for encouragement. Qualifiers can often be underrated opponents who are well used to the conditions having come through three matches to make the main draw, but Raducanu has barely given them a chance to take advantage of this with some ruthless ball-striking.

Three days after a 6-1, 6-2 win in the first round against the world No128, Ena Shibahara, Raducanu was similarly dominant with a scoreline of 6-2, 6-1 against the world No149 Janice Tjen. In the process she also claimed the quickest win of her professional career at a duration of one hour exactly, which was one minute faster than her victory against Bibiane Schoofs in the third round of qualifying here in 2021.

Under the guidance of her new coach, Francisco Roig, Raducanu’s serve has been particularly impressive here. Against Tjen she hit eight aces, as well as recording no double faults for a second consecutive match. A first-serve-in percentage of 79 per cent against Tjen is also among the best she has posted in her career. “I thought I served very well and I put quite a few aces on the board today,” Raducanu said. “It always helps me when I’m serving well. It just kind of seeps into the rest of my game.”

Raducanu’s victory took exactly 60 minutes AP

Dominating play was a crucial tactic for Raducanu against an opponent who likes to play with variation. Tjen, a 23-year-old Indonesian, has had her style compared to the former world No1 Ashleigh Barty with sliced backhands and net charges, but Raducanu never allowed herself to get caught up in this web by hitting through Tjen with constant aggression.

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Raducanu also pounced on any opportunities, converting the two break points she brought up in the first set at 1-0 and 5-2. Another two breaks of serve in the second set were enough to complete the job, and she looked extremely satisfied with herself afterwards.

Tjen beat 24th seed Veronika Kudermetova in the first round but was well off the pace here AP

“I’m particularly happy because on the court I felt like my opponent was playing really good tennis,” Raducanu said. “I thought she was very dangerous and any ball that I put mid-court was going to be punished, so I’m very pleased with how I kept dictating the points, I kept dictating the play, and didn’t let her too often get her front foot on the court.

“She’s obviously been playing very well, done a lot of winning, and took out Veronika [Kudermetova, the No24 seed] in the first round. I was on full alert playing today. I’m just very pleased with that performance.”

The only one cause for some concern was that Raducanu briefly stretched her back on a couple of occasions during the second set. She has previously experienced pain in this area of her body over the past year and has added a travelling chiropractor to her team here in Jerome Poupel, a Frenchman whose former clients include the jockey Tony McCoy and Formula 1 driver David Coulthard.

“I just had a little bit of stiffness in the second set,” Raducanu explained. “I have been doing a lot of training. I’m just happy it didn’t affect me too much in the second set and I was still able to compete, perform well and keep putting out good serves, good returns. It didn’t really come into the match too much, which I’m happy with.”

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No doubt Raducanu has been making good progress on the tour. At this year’s Australian Open she reached the third round of an overseas grand-slam for the first time since that ten-match run to the 2021 US Open title. Now she has reached the last 32 once again in New York with minimal fuss.

Raducanu will, of course, feel she has much more than this to achieve, although it is likely that the opposition to come will provide far more of a challenge than anything she has faced so far this week. Her next projected opponent is the world No10 Elena Rybakina, who plays her second-round match later on Wednesday.

“She’s a top opponent,” Raducanu said of Rybakina. “She’s won Wimbledon [in 2022]. She’s been at the top of the game for so long, is very dominant and has big weapons, a huge serve and big groundstrokes. So I do want to see how my game suits and fits against the top players.

“I still think I have a long way to go, but I have been making steps towards getting closer and narrowing that gap. I have to take confidence from my matches against Aryna [Sabalenka, the world No1] in Cincinnati and Wimbledon [both closely fought defeats]. But Elena is a different opponent. She beat Aryna in Cincinnati in straight sets. It’s going to be a tough match if she wins today but we’ll see on the result.”

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