Emma Raducanu rues ‘missed chances’ after Australian Open exit
Emma Raducanu has been knocked out of the Australian Open, after a straight sets defeat to No.7 seed Coco Gauff, 6-3 7-6(4).
The British No.1 wasn’t without her chances, having not taken advantage of two set points at 5-4 in the second set, which the 20-year-old said ‘sucked’.
It was an entertaining battle between the Brit and the American, however both were nervy towards the start and the end of the match, accumulating a total of 83 unforced errors.
Although Gauff is the younger of the two, at only 18 years of age, she felt like the veteran in this contest having played on the tour for two years longer than Raducanu.
In-fact the American’s second round win was her 100th on the WTA tour, becoming the youngest woman to achieve this feat since 2018 Australian Open champion, Caroline Wozniacki.
100th win 👏
On a 7 match win streak 👏@CocoGauff is having a fantastic start to 2023 🔥#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/6lwynf0TRq— wta (@WTA) January 18, 2023
Despite the loss, Raducanu was upbeat about the future when speaking to the press, emphasising how much work it took to even make the tournament after rolling her ankle in Auckland, only 15 days ago.
“As I said, I think that the limited practice time is difficult to play matches and be in that sort of condition,” she said. “But, yeah, I think we did a great job to get onto the court this week.’
“Obviously I’ve just got a lot of work to do from here and just looking forward,” said Raducanu, “I just have to review the body right now. I’ve had some niggles in the past few months, and I just need to get that sorted, train, and then we’ll see after that.”
The 2021 US Open champion is working with German Sebastian Sachs at the moment and implied that the working relationship will be continuing for the foreseeable future, “I’m actually just looking forward to putting in the work, and I feel, as I said before, I’m putting in a good system in place, and I’m really buying into and trusting the work that I’m doing with Sebastian [Sachs] and the rest of the team.
She added, “I’m feeling good and confident that in six months’ time I know it’s not going to be, like, the finished product, but hopefully I would have made strides.”
While Raducanu is now out, Gauff will move onto the third round where she will play fellow American Bernarda Pera.
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