Emma Raducanu stays positive but has ‘no excuses’ after Australian Open rout
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Emma Raducanu says she leaves Melbourne positive about her progress and development despite suffering the heaviest defeat of her grand slam career to Iga Swiatek, the No 2 seed, in the third round of the Australian Open. “Three weeks ago when I was in Auckland, at the end of last year, I was doing pool rehab. I think to be on a tennis court playing matches and competing is something I have to be grateful for. I started hitting when I came here 18 days ago. I have to take a positive that I was able to beat two top opponents in the first two rounds,” said Raducanu.
“But today, no excuses of the back or physically. I didn’t play well. She played very well. Given the preparation we had, we have to be grateful to be in this position. Of course I have a lot of things to take as feedback and work on.”. Raducanu had reached the third round in Melbourne for the first time in her career with two solid wins over Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 26th seed, and Amanda Anisimova. Swiatek, however, proved a step too far as she was completely dominant throughout her 6-1, 6-0 win over Raducanu. From 1-1 in the opening set, Swiatek rolled through 11 consecutive games to take the match after annihilating Raducanu’s first and second serve while completely overpowering the Briton with her far superior pace and weight of shot.
“Today the scoreline was quite harsh,” said Raducanu. “I feel like I look back and know exactly what I need to do, and I take it as feedback. I’m very clear on kind of what happened out there. The scoreline reflects one thing. If I’m not necessarily able to hold my service games or kind of dictate, I feel like it seeps into the rest of my game.”.
