Emma Raducanu\u2019s smile is back. <\/p>\n
So is her game.<\/p>\n
The young Brit broke her three-year U.S. Open drought, winning her first match in Flushing Meadows since the breakthrough 2021 title that changed her life.<\/p>\n
Radacanu rolled past qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-1, 6-2 at Louis Armstrong Stadium with a 26-minute first set and a brisk one-hour domination. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s cleared a huge mental hurdle, making New York her happy place for the first time in years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it has been on my mind,\u201d said Radacanu, 22. \u201cIt\u2019s been four years, and it\u2019s a very special tournament for me. I did feel different coming into it this year. I felt like I was doing the right things day to day, but still, it\u2019s in the back of your head. So I\u2019m just very pleased to have overcome that.<\/p>\n
Emma Raducanu hits a shot during her US Open win Aug. 24. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my first win here since 2021, so it\u2019s extra special. First rounds are always difficult and especially at a Slam. I\u2019m just so happy with the way I came through that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radacanu won the 2021 U.S. Open as an 18-year-old qualifier, dazzling with not just her game but her megawatt smile. <\/p>\n
But after her title defense ended with a first-round loss to Alize Cornet \u2014 making her just the fourth reigning U.S. Open champ ousted in the opening round \u2014 she missed 2023 due to injury and suffered another first-round exit last year to Sofia Kenin.<\/p>\n
Emma Raducanu plays a shot during her US Open win Aug. 24. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
She acknowledged New York had become a mental hurdle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really struggled when I came back in 2022. I didn\u2019t enjoy coming back here,\u201d Radacanu said. \u201cNow is the first time that I feel like I can come back to the U.S. Open and really enjoy the memories that I made here. I can be proud of that and see it as a happy place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radacanu looked happy on the court Sunday, serving well and taking an aggressive return position. <\/p>\n
She seemed confident, self-assured and in control.<\/p>\n
Emma Raducanu celebrates during her first-round win at the US Open on Aug. 24. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
She also seemed comfortable with her new coach, Francisco Roig. <\/p>\n
Rafa Nadal\u2019s ex-coach, the Spaniard constantly gave loud positive reinforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put a lot of trust in what I\u2019m doing with Francisco on the practice court,\u201d Radacanu said. \u201cWe\u2019re just working really well, doing the right stuff on the practice court, and I just feel like I\u2019m improving. To take confidence from what I\u2019m doing behind the scenes and not just have confidence because I\u2019ve won these matches on the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m doing a lot day to day. It\u2019s going well, and I\u2019m enjoying it. I\u2019m enjoying getting better, and the process of feeling like, at the end of the day, I\u2019m satisfied I got a little bit better and just repeating it. That\u2019s probably the biggest success and reason why I feel the way I do right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being nervous beforehand, starting quickly helped Radacanu settle in.<\/p>\n
She ended up with an encouragingly clean match, just six unforced errors \u2014 one in the second set \u2014 to 36 by her outmatched Japanese foe.<\/p>\n
Raducanu raced out to a quick 5-0 lead and cruised.<\/p>\n
Emma Raducanu hits a shot during her win to start the US Open on Aug. 24. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI started off really well, and that helped relax me a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially serving first game, that was a confident start, and then I felt like I could keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Raducanu has a chance to keep going.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s provisionally up to world No. 33 in the live rankings after the win and well-placed to crack the top 30. <\/p>\n
With No. 24 Veronika Kudermetova getting upset by Janice Tjen, Raducanu gets to face another qualifier.<\/p>\n
With an extra day baked into the first round this year, she\u2019ll get some free time in New York, now a happy place again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy nana \u2014 it\u2019s not my actual grandma, but I\u2019m like her adopted granddaughter, I\u2019d like to think \u2014 she\u2019s from New York, and she told me to go to the Frick Collection,\u201d Raducanu said. \u201cI\u2019ve been into my art a lot more recently, and it\u2019s reopened after I think four or five years of being under construction. That will be really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu\u2019s smile is back. So is her game. The young Brit broke her three-year U.S. Open drought,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[1701,99,428,14687],"class_list":{"0":"post-107893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-emma-raducanu","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-us-open-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}