Emma Raducanu says she is proud of the improvements she displayed on Monday afternoon as she pushed Aryna Sabalenka to the limit in their punishing tussle.
Five weeks on from their memorable third-round match at Wimbledon, Raducanu showed her continued progress by making life even more difficult for the world No 1 in Cincinnati and coming close to pulling off the best individual victory of her career. After three hours and nine minutes on court, Raducanu lost 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (5).
“She’s world No 1 for a reason and I pushed her more than I did at Wimbledon so that’s an improvement,” said Raducanu. “And also, it was good to have this result on a hard court because it’s very different to grass. I was always thinking that grass suits me a lot more and I still believe that so to have pushed her on a hard court like that, I’m pretty proud of it.”
The 30th seed continued: “I think starting the point is a big takeaway. I think she did that incredibly well in the big moments, she served and returned really well. Me too in certain moments of the match. To hold that level on starting the point in the match is a big thing to me.”
After losing the first set, Raducanu recovered brilliantly, serving well for large stretches and then finding a way through an incredible 13-deuce service game at 3-4 in the final set. In the end, Sabalenka showed her mental toughness by saving her best tennis for the most important moments.
“You take the lessons from this,” said Raducanu, 22. “I was able to play some good tennis for patches of the match, but I think it also dropped off for other patches of the match. So I think with work and going on the practice court, I can do it for longer and hold the level high for longer. But that being said, we had a three-hour match and I felt pretty good out there for the most part against Aryna who’s achieved everything she has, so it’s mostly positives.”
Raducanu’s defeat also marks an end to her first tournament with her new coach Francisco Roig, a former member of Rafael Nadal’s coaching team, who has been working with the Briton since last Tuesday. After her comfortable second-round win against Olga Danilovic, this was their first big match together. Roig was extremely vocal throughout with encouragement and specific tactical advice.
“I think the first week went well,” said Raducanu. “I think we practised well. I made some improvements and I think for certain moments, you could see some stuff we practised peek through. But given that it’s only been a week, I think there’s been improvements.”
