{"id":102453,"date":"2025-08-30T05:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/102453\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T05:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:07:10","slug":"emma-raducanu-in-unwanted-first-as-british-star-claims-she-is-being-targeted-amid-us-open-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/102453\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu in unwanted first as British star claims she is being targeted amid US Open exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu was taught a lesson by Elena Rybakina at the US Open, and thinks she knows why.<\/p>\n

The British No.1<\/a> was swept asiden in the third round 6-1, 6-2 by the Russian-born Kazak in just 62 minutes for the fastest-ever defeat of her career.<\/p>\n

\"Raducanu<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Raducanu was sent packing in record time by RybakinaCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Raducanu had been in a good run of injury-free form<\/a> for much of 2025, but feels like top players such as Rybakina up their game against her due to her status as a Grand Slam winner.<\/p>\n

When asked post defeat if she thinks there\u2019s a target on her back, the 22-year-old<\/a> responded: \u201cYeah, big time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think at the same time while I’m improving, doing better, gaining maybe some more respect around, I think the top have definitely raised their game.<\/p>\n

read more on emma raducanu<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raducanu improving, but not against the elite<\/p>\n

Raducanu, who won the US Open<\/a> in 2021, has regained some form this year after an injury hit 2022 and 2023, stepping back into the top 100 last year, she now ranks 36th.<\/p>\n

2025 has also seen the Bromley-raised talent achieve her best Grand Slam results at the French Open<\/a> (second round) and Australian Open (third round).<\/p>\n

Raducanu has also racked up more victories against top ten ranked players<\/a>, but when it comes to the very best Grand Slam winners like Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> and Iga Swiatek, she\u2019s been comprehensively stopped in her tracks.<\/p>\n

Expanding on her performances against the game\u2019s best, she said: \u201cTo be honest, I think when these top players are playing really well, it’s difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every time I’ve played Iga and Elena, they’ve played unbelievable. So I think that’s difficult for sure to play against.<\/p>\n

\"Raducanu<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Raducanu has put in some solid performances against Sabalenka in 2025, but not enough to win\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

The British star lasted just 62 minutes in her third round clashCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“Then the ball just comes through really, really fast, and you feel like you just don’t really have any time to create anything, so it’s just constant pressure.<\/p>\n

“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. So I think that’s probably the biggest tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with a dominant third round performance, Rybakina was keen to compliment Raducanu post-match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy with the performance,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always not easy to play against Emma, even sometimes the score doesn\u2019t show, but she\u2019s a tough competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu was taught a lesson by Elena Rybakina at the US Open, and thinks she knows why.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[6961,6962,25071,49911,101,118,56,54,55,6545],"class_list":{"0":"post-102453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-elena-rybakina","9":"tag-emma-raducanu","10":"tag-flushing-meadows","11":"tag-raducanu-vs-rybakina","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom","17":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}