Since navigating the qualifiers and winning the US Open last year, Emma Raducanu has become one of those ephemeral players for whom there could be building concern. Oozing vulnerability, her permanent condition on Centre court during her 6-3, 6-3 defeat to French player Caroline Garcia seemed to be one of needing to win rather than expecting to.
It was fraught and scattered with little reliability on her serve or shot making. Clearly both are there, but there’s been a seven-month treasure hunt for the young player and her team to find them.
Still a teenager, she is also cursed with the same kind of DNA Anna Kournikova once possessed that made her the beauty and darling of the courts. Because of that Raducanu naturally sucks all the energy towards her.
It is too early to make comparisons but like Kournikova, who never won a Grand Slam event, Raducanu’s off court earnings have quickly passed her on court earnings and like Kournikova, she has found an unwanted knack to disappoint. Raducanu was generously seeded 10 for Wimbledon and expected to hang around for longer than the second round.
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Unfortunately at her home event her cameo was short lived as Garcia held her nerve to silence the crowd. And to prove she meant it, she performed a skipping dance across the court at the end, after cutting a short return from Raducanu viciously cross court for the winner on match point.
Until then the match had seesawed between service games of the two with Raducanu’s backhand letting her down. The collapsing left leg, invariably with the low ball hitting the net, showed an obvious area that needs buffing. The 19-year-old also failed to handle Garcia’s tactic of shortening the points and her terrific volleying, which won her a grass court event in Bad Homburg just days ago.
With blustery conditions causing problems for both players, Raducanu battled back from losing the opening two games of the first set, but was outhit by Garcia as the 28-year-old reeled off three games in a row. Raducanu saved a set point at 2-5 but Garcia made no mistake on her own delivery.
Raducanu held serve twice to start the second set but was in trouble as soon as Garcia got into the rallies with her shot proving more accurate and heavier than those of her younger opponent. Although the crowd tried to play a partisan role at 15-40 Raducanu badly shanked a backhand beyond the tramline to find herself a set and a break down. She was in a hole.
Although she immediately retrieved the break to level at 3-3, consistency wasn’t Raducanu’s friend as she dropped serve for 3-4 and Garcia held for 5-3. The crowd sensed the danger and again rose in volume but a backhand into the net gave Garcia match point and a short return just popped up nicely for the match winner.
Again the attention on her and the effect it is having was one of the main lines of questioning.
“I think I’ve been asked this question in every press conference,” she said. “But I am 19 years old. Yes, I have had attention. But I’m a slam champion, so no one’s going to take that away from me. Yeah, if anything, the pressure is on those who haven’t done that.
“I’ll just get better. I’ll just look at what’s not working, what my weaknesses are, improve them. It’s good for me. These lessons are coming every single week. It’s just a reminder you got to do this, this, and that. It comes from different players so it just highlights it. Yeah, for me it’s just something to improve on.”
For now there will be some introspection but it’ll be short lived as Raducanu has a firm date fixed for August 29th, where she will begin the defence of her US Open title in New York.
“Going back to New York, it’s going to be cool because I have got a lot of experiences playing on big courts, playing with people in the stadium, playing with the spotlight on you,” she said. “I don’t mind that. I mean, for me, everything is learning. I’m embracing every single moment that is thrown at me.”
