Brits crash out but Emma Raducanu shows signs of ascent

There are no British singles players remaining at the US Open as the tournament heads into its second week. Jack Draper retired from the competition after winning his first round match, both Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie went out in the third round. Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartel, and Fran Jones were all first round exits, whilst Jacob Fearnley made it a step further before falling to Alexander Zverev.

It is undeniably a disappointing showing but one that perhaps looks worse on the surface than it is in reality.

For Raducanu, the disappointment will no doubt be how she was totally outclassed by ninth seed Elena Rybakina in her 6-1, 6-2 victory. After a confident first two rounds, and more pertinently, two tight recent matches against world no1 Aryna Sabalenka, Raducanu would no doubt have fancied herself for an upset. But she struggled to get a foothold in this match, crucially being broken having been 40-0 up at the start of the second set.

Rybakina might only have been seeded ninth but only Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek have more victories on the tour this year, with a strong hard court season seeing her make the semi-finals in all three of Cincinnati, Montreal and Washington.

“I think when the very top [players] play against me, they have a point to prove that they’re at the top and they’re there for a reason,” said Raducanu following her loss.

“I’ll take it 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.”

The aim for Raducanu is clear – get seeded. In the four Slams this year, she has lost to Swiatek twice, Sabalenka and now Rybakina. She will continue to encounter the best players in early rounds until she picks up enough points to avoid them.

Despite that, Raducanu is consistently now beating the players she should beat. She breezed past both Ena Shibhara and Janice Tjen in the first two rounds. There was a time not long ago where that would not have been the case. Her serve has improved significantly and, most importantly, she looks fit.

“I want to train a lot,” she said. “I practice a lot of hours but it can put a lot of wear on my body. That’s where I need to be reined in. I need the people around me to pull me back because I always want to do more, practice more, and compete more.”

As she heads to Asia for the next round of tournaments, continuing this vein of form is undoubtedly the road to seeing if she can take the next step and become a player who regularly competes in the latter stages of Slams.

For Cameron Norrie, feelings must be mixed. The frustration of losing to Novak Djokovic in his second slam of the calendar year must sting – he has never beaten him in seven meetings – but he acquitted himself well on an electric Friday night at Arthur Ashe. Norrie had never previously played on the main court at Flushing Meadows, and was able to take a set off Djokovic through a filling tiebreak. Despite Norrie breaking serve immediately in the third set, Djokovic broke back and found it plain sailing from then on.

At 30 years old, Norrie will be under no illusions that this is the twilight of his career and perhaps these moments, under the lights against arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, is as meaningful as it would be to actually win.

It has been a topsy turvy start to the US Open for 2023 winner Coco Gauff. All the focus has been on her serve after she recruited Gavin McMillan, who previously helped Aryna Sabalenka with hers, as a biomechanics expert. But after ten double faults in the first round against Ajla Tomljanović and eight in the second against Donna Vekić, which prompted tears, it is clear the problem will not be fixed overnight. A comfortable 6-3, 6-1 victory over Magdalena Fręch in round three, and only four double faults, will give her some more confidence.

Taylor Townsend has also reached the round of 16. The number-one ranked women’s doubles player in the world, Townsend backed up her win over Jeļena Ostapenko -which proved controversial after Ostapenko told her she had "no class, no education" - with another straight-sets victory, this time over fifth seed Mirra Andreeva. It is only the second time that Townsend has reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam in singles, the other occasion also coming here in 2019.

Photograph by Ena Betancur/AFP