Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu was outclassed and outplayed by Kazakhstan’s world No 10 Elena Rybakina in her third round round match at Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York.
Rybakina breezed past Raducanu 6-1, 6-2 in just 62 minutes.
Raducanu was asked to identify what sets apart the top players and some areas that she needs to improve to close the gap.
“To be honest, I think when these top players are playing really well, it’s difficult.
“I think every time I’ve played Iga (Swiatek) and Elena (Rybakina), they’ve played unbelievable.
“So, I think that’s difficult for sure to play against. I think when you’re playing Elena, she has a great serve, of course.
“Second serve coming in quick and high as well. Return comes back faster. Like you’ve barely landed from your serve, and it’s back on the baseline.
“Then, yeah, the ball just comes through really, really fast, and you feel like you just don’t really have any time, you know, to create anything, so it’s just constant pressure.
“Then I think when you feel in that way a shorter ball or a ball that is usually normal for you, you feel more pressure to kind of execute, and then that’s when you maybe make some errors that you don’t.”
Strong work ethic
Emma Raducanu appears to have a very strong work ethic that she sometimes needs to balance with periods of rest.
“Yeah, I think with me I want to train, like, a lot, and I practice quite a lot of hours, but I think at the same time it can put a lot of wear on my body.
“So, I think now I’m doing a good job. Pretty strong and fit overall for the most part. I’m not getting injured.
“But that’s where I need to be reined in, and I need the people around me to kind of pull me back and say, we’ve done enough.
“That’s how I kind of manage my load because I always want to do more and practice more and play and compete more too.”
Point to prove
Emma Raducanu admitted that the higher ranked players she plays against, appear to want to prove that they have a higher ranking for a reason.
“Yeah, big time. I think when the very top play against me, they have a point to prove that they’re at the top, and they’re there for a reason.
“I think every time I’ve played one, they’ve kind of shown that.
“So, I think at the same time while I’m improving, doing better, gaining maybe some more respect around, I think yeah, the top have definitely raised their game.”
Raducanu is not daunted by the challenge that she has ahead of her to close the gap with these world class players.
“But I’ll take that as a compliment that they’ve decided to really lock in against me, but at the same time it does show I have a lot more work to do.”
Dave Marshall is reporting exclusively from the US Open in Flushing Meadows for The South African.
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