Emma Raducanu overwhelmed by Rybakina at US Open in straight-sets loss | US Open Tennis 2025

Emma Raducanu has spent in recent months working with diligence to improve the quality of her game in order to irritate the best players in the world, but another meeting with one of the elites only illustrated how it should progress.

In what has become a painfully familiar experience for the British No. 1, Raducanu was largely reduced to being a spectator in his own tennis match in the face of an imperative attacking performance of the Wimbledon 2022 Elena Rybakina champion, who moved Raducanu 6-1, 6-2 to reach the fourth round of the United States.

Given its positive preparation, Raducanu had good reasons to hope that things can be slightly different this time. She arrived in this match as confident as she could be, after losing six games in her first two games while serving well and dictating the basic line with authority tennis.

However, Rybakina was always going to be a spectacular step of quality. She is the best server in the world, which she associates with some of the cleanest and most destructive bases of the game. The only one other time they clashed, Raducanu was beaten 6-0, 6-1 in 2022.

From the start, the British No. 1 felt the overwhelming strength of the base of Rybakina while the Kazakhstani opened the match by hitting the ball of the two wings with a drilling, an easy power and a depth. Raducanu has desperately attempted to maintain its position on the basic line and not to abandon ground, but it was constantly forced to defensive positions.

Previously, in Cincinnati, Rybakina dismantled the n ° 1, Aryna Sabalenka, with his devastating van and he quickly became clear that she was in a similar mood. She served brilliantly, neutralizing Raducanu’s return while she also returned with relentless depth, constantly precipitating her opponent. She took control of almost all reference exchanges, beating the ball back and forcing the 22 -year -old child to rush without raw behind the baseline. Raducanu clearly hoped to disturb Rybakina with his variation, but the disdain with which the Kazakhstani treated its first slices of reverse ended these hopes.

Facing such sustained and relentless pressure makes anyone who played his game and the Rybakina flambé level was directly responsible for Raducanu errors accumulating. She also ruthlessly closed the door to the British few opportunities to take over the match. Lowering a break in 2-3 in the second set, Raducanu finally put a pressure measure on the Rybakina service at 30-30, to which Kazakhstani responded with a vicious Ace before walking to another service. She hasn’t lost another match.

While the last five months have presented significant progress for Raducanu, for months of reconstruction of his confidence and his game alongside Mark Petchey to find the courage to get out of his comfort zone and to hire his new coach, Francisco Roig, it was a turbulent year for Rybakina, who was formerly considered the third best player behind Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.

His season began with the news that his longtime coach, Stefano Vukov, had been suspended on the WTA tour because of his alleged abusive behavior towards Rybakina, who repeatedly expressed his opposition to the decision and continued to work with him tournaments.

Shortly before Cincinnati’s opening this month, Vukov managed to appeal the decision, which means that he was allowed to accompany him again during the tournaments. Since the end of the case, Rybakina has clearly produced some of his best tennis of the season.

For Raducanu, the sight of his mastery of one of the best players in the world has become too familiar. At the Grand Chelem this year, Fortune was not on her side because she faced Swiatek twice, Sabalenka and now Rybakina. There is no shame in being overcome by incredible tennis players, but, with the exception of its two tight sets with Sabalenka in Wimbledon, these meetings were too unilateral.

Since she announced her coach partnership with Roig, Raducanu has stressed that her main objective was to improve to the point that she can make the lives of these best players difficult and make sure that she does not depend if on her opponent in each match. For all the positive signs they showed very early, she also noted several times that their collaboration was still in its infancy and that it is far from achieving its objectives.

At the end of a difficult afternoon in one of the largest tournaments in the world, it was clear for the 14,000 spectators.