Serena Williams Loses To Emma Raducanu In Cincinnati In Closing Heat-Up Earlier than U.S. Open
Serena Williams performs a return throughout a apply session forward of the Western & Southern Open tennis … [+]
There was a number of hype and expectation main as much as Serena Williams’ first match on the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Ever since she announced her impending retirement final week, followers had been trying ahead to a first-round matchup between Williams and defending U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu.
Those that purchased tickets for Monday’s evening session anticipating to see the match had been disillusioned when it was pushed to Tuesday evening.
When the match lastly got here, the 19-year-old Raducanu was the higher, faster and stronger participant, dispatching the 23-time Grand Slam champion, 6-4, 6-0 in 65 minutes of their first assembly. Followers gave Serena an enormous spherical of applause as she rapidly walked off the court docket.
“Properly, I believe all of us want to only honor Serena and her superb profession,” Raducanu, who will play former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka subsequent, mentioned on court docket.
“I’m so grateful for the expertise of with the ability to play her and for our careers to have crossed over and every little thing that she has achieved is so inspirational. And yeah, it was a real honor to share the court docket along with her.”
Raducanu hit 14 winners and made only one unforced error whereas changing 5-of-9 break probabilities. Serena broke Raducanu simply as soon as within the first set.
“The environment tonight was superb,” Raducanu mentioned. “To play with Serena, even if you guys had been cheering for her, I used to be all for it.
“To be trustworthy, I used to be nervous from the primary level to the final level as a result of I do know what a champion she is. She will come again from any state of affairs so I actually needed to keep centered. I’m simply so happy that I used to be capable of maintain my composure.”
With the loss, Serena fell to 1-3 in 2022 after lacking a yr with a foot harm following final yr’s first-round exit at Wimbledon.
“I believe it’s onerous,” ESPN’s Mary Jo Fernandez mentioned on air through the match. “I believe she expects herself to nonetheless play like she did. You’re that good and that dominant.”
She added: “It simply wasn’t Serena’s evening.”
It was a tricky day for big-name girls’s gamers, as Coco Gauff retired with an ankle harm throughout her match in opposition to Marie Bouzkova after trailing 7-5, 1-0.
Zhang Shuai superior to the second spherical with a 6-4, 7-5 defeat of four-time main champion Naomi Osaka, who has but to win a title in 202s.
Venus Williams, 42, additionally misplaced earlier Tuesday, 7-5, 6-1 to Karolina Pliskova.
Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez all misplaced their first matches as properly.
Serena Williams will now have about two weeks off earlier than the beginning of the U.S. Open on Aug. 29 in what is anticipated to be her remaining event.
The Open bought 16,500 tickets the day Serena introduced her retirement, and she or he will likely be honored by enormous crowds and legendary gamers throughout her time in New York. John McEnroe and Rafael Nadal have already paid tribute to Williams, with McEnroe comparing her to Michael Jordan and Tom Brady.
Williams has mentioned she needs to give attention to rising her household, and can also be anticipated to pursue different pursuits as properly.
“Consider me, I by no means needed to have to decide on between tennis and a household,” Willams wrote in Vogue. “I don’t assume it’s honest. If I had been a man, I wouldn’t be scripting this as a result of I’d be on the market enjoying and successful whereas my spouse was doing the bodily labor of increasing our household.”
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