In an echo of her defeat at the same stage of Wimbledon two months ago, the American world No 3 was upended in the fourth round by her compatriot Emma Navarro, the 13th seed, whose remarkable journey at Flushing Meadows continued with a tenacious 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win.

Before last week, Navarro had never even won a match in New York, much less squared off against the defending champion on Arthur Ashe Stadium. But the 23-year-old New Yorker ensured her debut on the sport’s biggest stage was a memorable one, living up to her “ice girl” nickname with a composed, intelligent performance that ruthlessly exposed the technical deficiencies in Gauff’s game.

In the city they famously named twice, as the old song goes, Navarro effectively earned victory twice, first when she stood within two games of repeating her straight-sets victory over Gauff on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, then when she regrouped after faltering in the face of a typically impassioned fightback from Gauff.

Yet Navarro was also the beneficiary of a woeful serving performance from Gauff, who hit 19 double faults and made a whopping 60 unforced errors in all. Twenty-nine of those mistakes came on the champion’s forehand, which disintegrated under the relentless pressure exerted by Navarro.

It was a far cry from the wonders of last summer, when Gauff won a first WTA 500 title in Washington, a maiden 1000 event in Cincinnati, and then became the first American teenager to triumph at a major since Serena Williams won at Flushing Meadows in 1999. She is hardly the first player to struggle under the weight of expectation that accompanies the defence of a first grand slam title, but the manner of her defeat exposed deeper problems.

It was not only the quantity of double faults that cost Gauff so dearly, but also their timing. In the sixth game, she hit two in a row from 15-30 to concede a break that would decide the first set. At 3-3, 30-30 in the second set, her eighth double fault of the evening gifted Navarro a break point that put the world No 12 within touching distance of victory. And although Gauff capitalised on a first hint of vulnerability from Navarro to wriggle out of that hole, worse was to follow in the decider, where she dropped serve in the third game with back-to-back double faults and never recovered. Three more in the final game completed her misery.

“I played well for the most part, I just didn’t take care of my serve,” said Gauff, who did not rule out the possibility of consulting a biomechanics expert, as Aryna Sabalenka did so successfully in similar circumstances. “That was the biggest difference, too many free points on my serve. I go down on my left side a lot on my serve, and it’s something I’m aware of. [But] it’s tough in the moment not to do it. I was just trying to commit to [the serve] and just stay calm.”

Martina Navratilova, working on commentary for Sky Sports, described Gauff’s continued struggles in an area of her game that has long come under scrutiny as an embarrassment.

“It’s one thing when you’re missing forehands or returns,” said Navratilova, an 18-time grand slam champion in singles. “The opponent’s in control, you’re reacting. But missing serves, when you’re in control – it’s embarrassing. Serve should be a plus, or at least neutral. It should not be a minus. It feeds off into the rest of your game.”

The accuracy of Navratilova’s analysis was reflected in the number of errors Gauff made off the forehand, an area that Navarro targeted from the outset. Time and again the world No 3 failed to get her weight through the shot, her extreme grip and tendency to fall off the ball leading to numerous shanks and overspun balls that nosedived into the net. Gauff’s coach, Brad Gilbert, urged her to go high to Navarro’s backhand, yet the tactic had little effect, even when the 20-year-old was able to implement it.

Navarro’s victory was about more than simply exploiting her opponent’s weaknesses, however. She neutralised Gauff’s serve with the quality and consistency of her returning, taking the ball early when she could, blocking it when occasion demanded. She absorbed and redirected Gauff’s power in the baseline exchanges, manipulating the ball intelligently and maintaining immaculate length. And down the stretch, as Gauff fought to retain the title, Navarro retained her composure and her aggression, relentlessly taking on her shots, playing to win rather than relying on the champion’s frailties.

“There’s a different energy playing on Ashe, playing someone like Coco,” said Navarro. “There’s a ton of energy and passion and emotion out there which I don’t show, but I definitely feel it. It wasn’t easy today. I wasn’t able to close it out in two sets, so just really wanted to take that moment on in the third set, just really aggressively and confidently.”

Navarro’s reward is a quarter-final appointment with Paula Badosa, whose renascent summer run continued with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Wang Yafan of China. The 26-year-old Spaniard, a former world No 2 whose ranking plummeted after she suffered a stress fracture in her back last season, won her first title in more than two years last month in Washington before reaching the semi-finals in Cincinnati.

“A few months ago, I was thinking to quit this sport because I stopped believing in myself and my injury wasn’t responding,” said Badosa after reaching the second major quarter-final of her career. “To be back [at this level] is a dream come true.”

Elsewhere, Aryna Sabalenka moved into the last eight with a comfortable win over her former doubles partner Elise Mertens. The Belarusian second seed, defeated by Gauff in last year’s final, won 6-2, 6-4 and will next face Qinwen Zheng, the Olympic champion, who defeated Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-2.

The post Coco Gauff’s US Open reign ended by Emma Navarro appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

The Romanian obviously knew something we didn’t. Back on Centre Court for the first time since her career-defining victory over Serena Williams in 2019, she played like a woman eager to make up for lost time, dismissing Paula Badosa, the fourth seed, 6-1, 6-2 in exactly an hour. In every sense, her timing was perfect. Halep, who defeated the Spaniard by a similar scoreline two months ago in Madrid, struck 17 winners. Her returning, movement and ability to absorb Badosa’s power were extraordinary. It was all very reminiscent of her famous victory over Williams, a success that she is being backed to repeat by the oddsmakers, who have installed her as the title favourite.

Their confidence does not look misplaced. Halep, seeded 16th seed and through to the quarter-finals for the fifth time, is now the only grand slam champion left in the draw. She has yet to drop a set and will next face another powerful baseliner in the shape of Amanda Anisimova, the 20th seed. The American ended the impressive run of Harmony Tan, the 115th-ranked Frenchwoman who defeated Serena Williams in the opening round, 6-2, 6-3. Halep will approach the meeting with confidence, however, having demolished Anisimova for the loss of just three games when they met 12 days ago in the Bad Homburg quarter-finals. The outlook could not be brighter for the former world No 1. 

Six months ago, Halep could barely have imagined herself in such a position. Lacking confidence and momentum following her calf injury, she had fallen out of love with the game. A fourth-round exit to Alizé Cornet at the Australian Open did nothing to alter that feeling. At the age of 30, having slipped out of the top 10 for the first time in seven years as a result of her prolonged inactivity, she was contemplating retirement. 

In April, however, Halep began working with Patrick Mouratoglou, the French coach who guided Williams to 10 of her 23 grand slam titles. The effect has been transformative, with Halep’s tally of 30 wins this season eclipsed only by Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur, the top two players in the world.  

“I think the work is really important to be able to play well,” said Halep. “I worked really hard in the past two, three months. I’m really happy with all that I’ve done and that’s why I’m starting to play better and better. 

“It means a lot that I’m back in quarter-finals after I struggled so much with injury and self-confidence. But, as I said, I’m working hard every day, and I feel like if I do that I will get better. I’m really happy with the way I’m playing, I’m really confident, and it’s a pleasure to be on court… Everything comes together.” 

On a forgettable day for French tennis, Cornet followed Tan out of the tournament, Ajla Tomljanovic prevailing 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against the world No 37 in a contest notable for its lung-busting baseline exchanges. 

“Her level was really high from the get-go,” said Tomljanovic after reaching the last eight for the second year in a row. “I think the second point of the first game was so long that I kind of thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know if I’m going to physically be able to keep up with her.’ But I found a way.  

“It felt like a coin toss a little bit. I mean, she fights till the end. She wasn’t giving me much.”

Tomljanovic will face Kazakhstan’s Elena Riybakina, a 7-5, 6-3 winner over Petra Martic, for a place in the semi-finals.

The post Halep powers past Badosa to reach last eight at Wimbledon appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

A day after Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev both fought back from match point down to reach round three, Karolina Pliskova became the latest women’s seed to fall on the Parisian clay, soundly beaten by the splendidly monikered Léolia Jeanjean, a French wildcard ranked 227th. 

“It’s incredible thinking that I actually won in two sets against a top-10 player, a previous No 1,” said Jeanjean, who is playing in a tour-level main draw for the first time, after her 6-2, 6-2 win over the Czech eighth seed. “It’s incredible.”

Incredible perhaps, but by no means unique. 

In short space, Pliskova was followed out of the tournament by the American star Danielle Collins, the ninth seed, who was undone 6-4, 6-3 by her compatriot Shelby Rogers. Next it was the turn of former champion Simona Halep, seeded 19th, who was stunned by Zheng Qinwen, a Chinese teenager ranked 74th and playing in only her second grand slam. Not to be outdone, Alizé Cornet later defeated 13th seed Jelena Ostapenko, the champion of five years ago, 6-0, 1-6, 6-3.

The vanquished quartet are in good company. 

The shocks began early on Sunday, when sixth seed Ons Jabeur, widely seen as a leading contender for the title after winning in Madrid and reaching the final in Rome finalist, was bundled out by Poland’s Magda Linette. Later the same day, Garbiñe Muguruza, the 2016 winner, was beaten by Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi. The leading women have been falling like dominoes ever since. 

Barbora Krejcikova, the defending champion and second seed, was seen off in three sets by world No 97 Diane Parry. Anett Kontaveit, seeded fifth, was beaten by Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic. Maria Sakkari, a semi-finalist last year, fell to Karolina Muchova, while Emma Raducanu, the US Open champion and 12th seed, was toppled by Aliaksandra Sasnovich. 

Of the top 10 seeds, only Iga Swiatek, Paula Badosa and Aryna Sabalenka remain. All are in the top half of the draw; in the opposite section, 14th seed Belinda Bencic is the highest-ranked player left standing. 

What on Earth is going on? And why hasn’t the carnage in the women’s draw been echoed in the men’s, where the top 10 seeds remain intact? 

One theory is that the strength in depth of the women’s game is such that ranking and reputation counts for little.

Another is that, by virtue of playing over five sets rather than three, the men simply have longer to work things out, to steady the ship when things go awry. If the best-of-three format applied to both draws, then Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alcaraz and Felix Auger-Aliassime – respectively the third, fourth, sixth and ninth seeds – would all be starting their grass-court preparations by now. 

Paula Badosa, who recovered from a break down in the final set to advance 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 at the expense of Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan, finds truth in both suggestions.  

“The level is very high right now and you can lose against anyone,” said the Spanish third seed, whose evident irritation at receiving a warning for coaching after she dropped serve at the start of the third set spurred an immediate break back. 

“There have been a lot of surprises – and in the men’s, I have been following as well, yesterday so many tough matches, seeded [players], having match points [against them]. 

“But I think in their case having the five-set matches helped them, because you have a lot [more] time, and you have time to recover. In our case, it’s a little bit different on that side, because it’s like normal. The surprises are coming and coming, and it’s going to be always like that, because the level has raised a lot.”

Jessica Pegula has hit upon a novel solution to the more limited scope for comebacks over three sets: sprint for the line first, flirt with disaster later. Not for the faint-hearted, it is nonetheless an approach that allows plenty of time to stage a recovery. The 11th-seeded American first experimented with the strategy against China’s Wang Qiang in the opening round, where she led 6-2, 5-1 before eventually sealing the second set three games later, on her 10th match point.

Pegula only needed the nine match points against Anhelina Kalinina, although on this occasion the action played out over the long haul. Having missed three chances to seal victory at 6-1, 5-1, Pegula stuttered in the face of an extraordinary fightback by the Ukrainian world No 36 as Kalinina reeled off seven consecutive games. At 4-1 up in the decider she looked to have safely negotiated the crisis, but Kalinina once again came storming back before the American completed a 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 win. 

“There’s been, I think even on the men’s side, a lot of top players saving match points and winning in five,” said Pegula. “These are the rounds where anything can happen, and that’s why I’m even more happy to be through, considering the last few matches.”

Pegula nonetheless reaffirmed Badosa’s view that no opponent can be taken for granted. “As far as seeds dropping out, I think to me it’s not surprising, especially in the women’s game,” she said. “There’s so many good players right now that I take every match as being extremely tough.”

Nor should context be overlooked. Any number of factors can affect the outcome of a tennis match, and individual circumstances can never be discounted. Muguruza has been struggling for form all season. Krejcikova was returning from an extended injury layoff, and came into the tournament not so much undercooked as downright raw. Halep, meanwhile, suffered a panic attack during her loss to Qinwen, which goes to show that even former world No 1s are not immune to the natural pressures of competition. 

“I probably put pressure on myself too much, because I really wanted to do well,” said Halep. “I felt good. I practised. I worked hard. But it just didn’t happen, and probably I got a little bit of panic during [the match] thinking, overthinking. But I was leading, so there is no reason in particular why it happened. But it happened, so I have to accept it. It’s something normal that everybody has.”

Men are no less susceptible to such pressures, yet they have longer to work through the resulting challenges. Is the answer then for women to play best of five?

“It would be amazing for me, because I feel like my physical part is my strength,” said Sakkari following her loss to Muchova. “But the tournament’s never going to end, so we’re going to have to stay here for a month or build 15 more courts. So I don’t think that’s ever going to happen, because the calendar would have to be shorter.”

Even if the practicalities of scheduling allowed it, Pegula is unconvinced such a move would be for her. 

“I think women, we’ve been playing two out of three for a while,” she said. “I don’t, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t want to play three out of five. I think that would just kind of draw things out. That’s just my personal opinion.

“But yeah, it’s definitely different when you’re looking at [the men], you know. You have to win more sets against those top players than in the women, and I think you see those momentum changes a lot more.”

The post French Open: why are so many women’s seeds falling? appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Outwardly, Swiatek’s mindset, honed in collaboration with her psychologist Daria Abramowicz, was that of a seasoned champion: at ease with the cyclical nature of life on tour and fully aware that, come what may, the next big opportunity would come along soon enough.

But while the Pole made all the right noises, did she really believe in what she was saying? After all, barely seven months had passed since she stormed to her first grand slam title as a 19-year-old ranked 54th in the world, and while she arrived in the French capital fresh from a 6-0, 6-0 mauling of Karolina Pliskova in the Italian Open final, she remained a player whose achievements vastly outweighed her experience. That much was evident in the significance she attached to her success in Rome, which followed a title run in Adelaide three months earlier.

“Winning two titles, that was amazing for me, because I’m still not sure if I’m going to be consistent for the rest of my career,” said Swiatek. “This shows that I can perform well not only once, but I can repeat it.” 

Impressive as those victories undoubtedly were, true consistency, the kind that creates a platform for multiple major titles and sustained dominance, takes longer to acquire. Swiatek’s subsequent progress to the Roland Garros quarter-finals, where she was hampered by a thigh injury as she fell to Maria Sakkari in straight sets, emphasised her undoubted pedigree while offering a reminder that no amount of talent can insulate against the natural vicissitudes of life on tour. Anxiety, off days and self-doubt go with the territory. It is the ability to overcome such challenges week in, week out, that defines the great champions, and that comes only with time, familiarity, knowhow.

In the end, Swiatek’s head could not fool her heart: however much she told herself the French Open was just another tournament, she knew it was anything but. “I couldn’t even sleep well yesterday,” she admitted after her defeat. “I slept like a few hours. I think I was feeling everything twice as much as I should. It was hard to rationally just see what’s going on.”

She vowed to learn the lessons of that experience and it is, paradoxically, a measure of how much has changed in the interim that Swiatek goes into this year’s tournament with exactly the same approach she adopted last time. “If I’m going to treat it as any other tournament, I think it’s going to be fine,” said the 20-year-old after defeating Ons Jabeur to complete the defence of her Rome title last week. 

Why replicate an approach that previously failed to yield the desired outcome? Simple: Swiatek no longer needs to don the mantle of the battle-hardened winner in the hope that it will fit, because it now comes tailor-made, hers by right after an astonishing run of 28 consecutive wins and five straight titles. Champion in Qatar, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Rome, Swiatek has taken up the baton passed to her by the retired Ashleigh Barty and sprinted away from the chasing pack, making the No 1 ranking her own. 

A notably more aggressive player under Tomasz Wiktorowski, the experienced Polish coach with whom she joined forces at the end of last season, Swiatek returns to Roland Garros an immeasurably more confident and versatile player than the teenager who lifted the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen in 2019. She has shown she can walk the talk, and starts the tournament as a nigh-on unbackable favourite. That she is nonetheless taking nothing for granted only spells further bad news for her rivals. 

“I haven’t played a grand slam since the streak started,” said Swiatek, who will open her challenge against the Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko. “So I guess we’re going to see if everything I have been doing before is going to be enough. But I have really positive thoughts. Honestly, a couple of times during all these tournaments I was already stressed about [maintaining the winning streak], and I was able to work through it and do a really good job by just focusing on tennis. So hopefully I’m going to be able to continue that.”

Given that complacency seems unlikely to stop her, who might? The received wisdom is that Swiatek, who was beaten by Danielle Collins in the Australian Open semi-finals and former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai, might be vulnerable to a big hitter. That should offer some encouragement to Liudmila Samsonova, the powerful 26th-ranked Russian who extended her to a third set in Stuttgart, and with whom she is projected to renew hostilities in round three. 

Also on a potential collision course with the Pole is Ostapenko, the 13th seed, although the Latvian’s form has dipped since February, when she won in Dubai and reached the last four in Doha. If the seedings hold, Ostapenko would first need to get past Simona Halep, another former champion, who has been in renascent form since hiring Patrick Mouratoglou as her coach last month. From there, Swiatek is slated to meet Karolina Pliskova in the last eight, ahead of a potential semi-final against Paula Badosa, the Spanish third seed.

A deep run in Paris would be timely for Badosa, whose progress to the first major quarter-final of her career last year was among the highlights of a breakthrough season that included victory in Indian Wells and a first appearance at the WTA Finals. Despite reaching a career-high ranking of No 2 following Stuttgart, where she was a semi-finalist, the 24-year-old has had a largely underwhelming build-up to Roland Garros. She suffered early exits in Rome and Madrid, and has found it difficult to come to terms with the heightened expectations and scrutiny that accompany her elevated standing.

“It’s a tough situation that I’m learning,” said Badosa, who will face French wildcard Fiona Ferro in her opener. “I just want to try to manage as much as I can these kind of things, because everything is very new, so sometimes I get a little bit scared, and I feel that’s a little bit big for me.  

“What I’m working on, is to try to feel free on court and try to raise my level. I think that when I feel free and I feel calm – of course, I will have nerves –I play well, and I’m competitive. So that’s what I want to try to find here in the French Open.”

Badosa is seeded to face Aryna Sabalenka, her conqueror in Stuttgart, in the last eight. After a difficult few months, the unpredictable Belarusian has shown some form of late, reaching the final in Stuttgart and the semis in Rome. On both occasions she ran into Swiatek, emerging from the two encounters with a collective total of seven games. 

In the bottom half, defending champion Barbora Krejcikova returns from the elbow injury that has kept her out since February with minimal preparation and modest expectations. The Czech second seed starts her campaign against Diane Parry of France, the world No 96. Sloane Stephens, a finalist in Paris four years ago, potentially awaits a couple of rounds later, with Victoria Azarenka or Jil Teichmann, the in-form Swiss 23rd seed, potentially awaiting further down the line. The path to a projected quarter-final against fifth seed Anett Kontaveit looks fraught with hazard.

“I was off for quite a long time,” said Krejcikova, who acknowledged that she may have to rethink her long-term commitment to playing doubles in light of her injury problems. “I didn’t expect it, to be honest. But I’m healthy right now, I’m here, and it’s amazing to start at the place where I won my first slam last year.”

The player to watch in the lower half, however, is Jabeur, the champion in Madrid and a finalist at the Foro Italico, where her 11-match winning streak was broken by Swiatek. A repeat of that contest in Paris would no surprise. The Tunisian sixth seed is seeded to meet Maria Sakkari of Greece, who came within a point of reaching the final last year, in the last eight. She will rightly fear no one.

“I played quite a lot of matches on clay,” said Jabeur. “I feel good. I have always loved Roland Garros. I started by winning the junior tournament here, and it’s a very good memory. I wanted to win as a professional player. I work on a match-per-match basis. I like pressure, I like being one of the favourites in this tournament.”

The problem for Jabeur, as for the rest of the field, is the looming presence of a relaxed and confident Swiatek. 

“I proved to myself and to other people that I can be at the top of the game,” said Swiatek. ”Before, I wasn’t feeling that much confidence. This year, I feel much more peace.”

Swiatek’s calm will be a source of consternation for anyone with ambitions of stopping her.

The post French Open women’s preview: it’s all about Iga appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Back on her favourite surface at an event where she has traditionally thrived, Halep has spoken of regaining her old fire since hiring Patrick Mouratoglou as her coach earlier this month. The Romanian showed as much against Badosa, surging past the world No 2 with a poise and assurance that rekindled memories of her two title-winning runs at the Caja Mágica.

Yet it would be a mistake to imagine the Halep of old is back.

Unseeded this year as she seeks to work her way back up the rankings after the travails of last season, when a calf injury kept her out of the French Open and Wimbledon and saw her slip outside the top 10 for the first time in seven years, the world No 21 has already adopted a more aggressive style under Mouratoglou. It reaped dividends against Badosa, enabling Halep to dominate from the baseline against a player whose powerful serve and hefty groundstrokes would previously have encouraged her to fall back on the tenacious, counter-punching style that has traditionally been her hallmark.

“New Simona,” smiled the 30-year-old afterwards when asked if her 6-3, 6-1 victory was vintage Halep. 

“I’m confident, I like how I played. I know this is the way I want to play, we want to play. We talked about it, and I trust 100% what Patrick tells me about the game. 

“I’m really happy and pleased that I can do it on court, because it’s different when you practice [to an] official match. So the fact I could do it in an official match, with one of the best players in the world, gives me confidence.”

The pattern of the contest will have been uncomfortably familiar to Badosa. On Thursday, the Spaniard reeled off nine games in a row from 3-3 in the first set to win her opener against Veronika Kudermetova. This time out, the Spaniard received a dose of her own medicine, clawing back an early break with a run of three straight games only for Halep to regain the advantage in the seventh game after fashioning a break point with a sharply angled forehand winner. Badosa would win only more game.

“She played at a really good level,” said Badosa, who insisted her downfall was down to a combination of Halep’s excellence and her own erratic play, rather than a shoulder injury that required treatment midway through the second set. 

“I haven’t played very well. It was 3-3, and then she broke me and she started playing really well. I started to miss a lot of balls.  You know, as soon as you give her a small opportunity, she was able to go up in the score and was able to beat me.”

It had been clear from the outset that the Spaniard would have her hands full. Halep showed patience, resilience and no little quality, utilising her outstanding movement and defensive skills to contain Badosa’s power, while using deep crosscourt balls and short angles to pull the Spaniard wide. Anything short was summarily punished, Halep moving inside the baseline to take the ball on the rise and crush drives into the open court, and once she had taken the lead she was unstoppable, the quality of her shot-making leaving her opponent increasingly forlorn.

Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for Badosa, who had so desperately wanted to impress on home soil in her first event since displacing Barbora Krejcikova as world No 2. The 24-year-old, whose run to the semi-finals last season as a 62nd-ranked wildcard was the catalyst for her rise up the rankings, was inconsolable afterwards. 

“It’s not the best moment right now,” said Badosa, who had been the highest seed left in the tournament following the withdrawal of world No 1 Iga Swiatek. 

“Quite bad. It’s tough to lose at home. It’s been a tough week as well – very stressful, a lot of things. Tough draw, as well. But it goes how it goes, and I have to accept it. I think I need days off, because there are some tournaments that seem like five [tournaments], and this is the case right now.”

For Halep, on the other hand – who has said she was “super close” to retiring last season as her form plummeted and her body failed her – the matches suddenly cannot come fast enough. Halep faces 16th seed Coco Gauff in the last 16, against whom she is unbeaten in two previous encounters, and if she can sustain her rich vein of form, there could be much more to come from a season that has already brought a title in Melbourne and semi-finals appearances in Dubai and Indian Wells.

“I didn’t know how much I can play, and how good I can play still,” said Haelp. “But now I’m a different person. I feel more confident. I feel that the pleasure helps me to work harder, to work more. I spend more time on the court.

“I think it’s everything coming from inside, and at this point I feel happy with myself. I feel that I have the chance to play good tennis again.  Actually, it’s my number one priority in this moment. I feel again that fire.”

The post Resurgent Halep masters Badosa in Madrid appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

The lights duly flicked back on to reveal Sabalenka, the Belarusian third seed, primed and ready to go on the basline. It felt like an appropriate metaphor. After a season of struggle and strife, Sabalenka has emerged from the darkness this week to recapture something of the form that carried her to the last four at Wimbledon and the US Open last year. Here, she once again played with power, purpose and courage to see out a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory against second seed Badosa, her friend and doubles partner, that takes her through to the final against Iga Swiatek, who later extended her unbeaten streak to 22 matches with a 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-5 win over the unseeded Russian Liudmila Samsonova.

It is the second year in a row that Sabalenka, who has not reached a final for almost a year, has reached the title round in Stuttgart, and the turnaround feels long overdue for a player whose blazing firepower is a match for anyone in the world on her day. Sabalenka’s problems, which began in earnest when her serve deserted her before the Australian Open, have been as much between the ears as between the lines, but there has been no faulting her resolve over the past week. Having arrived in Germany with just one win from her previous four matches, the 23-year-old has looked more like her old self with each passing round.

Sabalenka, who battled past former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in her opening match before ending Anett Kontaveit’s 22-match unbeaten streak indoors to reach the last four, offered further evidence that she has rediscovered her mojo by staging an impressive recovery from 5-2 down in the opening set. She went on to clinch a tiebreak in which she trailed 4-1. Notably, when double faults crept into her game, as was the case at the start of the breaker, the Belarusian never allowed her head to drop. 

Sabalenka’s growing confidence was underlined by a meaty second-serve ace – one of nine untouchable deliveries that whistled beyond Badosa over the course of an enthralling hour and 40 minutes – at 5-5 in the tiebreak. It was precisely the kind of high-risk, high-reward moment on which Sabalenka’s success has been predicated. 

“Honestly, I thought like, ‘You have to risk it, just got for it.’ I didn’t want to make it an ace, I just wanted to make it in, but somehow I made it an ace,” said Sabalenka on court afterwards. 

“I just feel like if I trust my game and I stay aggressive and I risk sometimes, I feel like I control much more than [if] I just try to put the ball in. Then I get tight and miss. That’s why I go for my shots – I feel better that way.”

Sabalenka’s sense of wellbeing will not have been shared by Badosa, who was always likely to be walking a tightrope here after surviving back-to-back marathons against Elena Rybakina and Ons Jabeur to reach the last four. Having fought tigerishly to achieve the victories required to displace Barbora Krejcikova as world No 2, a career landmark that will be confirmed when the updated rankings are published on Monday, another three-set battle proved beyond the Spaniard. 

But what resistance Badosa mounted, defending brilliantly in the face of Sabalenka’s flamethrower groundstrokes and unsettling changes of pace to establish early control of a match in which she rarely looked as comfortable as her initial scoreline superiority suggested. She frequently gave as good as she got, though, lashing winners off the ground and serving with intelligence and variety as she alternated between pulling Sabalenka wide and tying her up with deliveries into the body. 

The quality of the shot-making was epitomised by a tit-for-tat exchange of slingshot down-the-line backhand winners in the heart of the tiebreak. Barely had the crowd caught their collective breath before a sinew-stretching rally ended with Sabalenka flicking a brilliant forehand winner into the open court. The Belarusian cancelled out an early break in the second set with some more immense hitting off the ground, and when she shrugged off a net-cord winner that gave Badosa a break point for a 5-4 lead with a smile and a huge serve, it was clear it would be her day.

“She’s the toughest opponent,” said Sabalenka, who had lost her two previous meetings with Badosa, most recently at last year’s WTA Finals. “I just tried to stay in that [first] set as long as I could and tried to fight for every point and get the break back. It was a tough match and I’m super happy with the result.”

Sabalenka will be happier still if she can avenge her defeat to Swiatek in the Doha quarter-finals two months ago. Swiatek’s title run in the Qatari capital marked the start of a remarkable winning streak that has included the “sunshine double” of Indian Wells and Miami, and seen her rise to world No 1 following the shock retirement of Ashleigh Barty. But the 20-year-old was made to work long and hard by Samsonova, who ended Swiatek’s run of 28 consecutive sets by fighting back from 4-1 down in the first set to claim it on a tiebreak. The big-serving Russian threatened an encore in the decider when she overturned a 3-1 deficit, but Swiatek narrowly held on to see out the victory in three hours and three minutes.

“I have no idea how I came back,” said Swiatek, who outclassed US Open champion Emma Raducanu in the quarter-finals. “I didn’t want to give up. I was trying to find solutions, even though some things were pretty frustrating. I think Liudmila played a great match… it was super tough and we both were fighting until the last ball.”

Swiatek and Sabalenka have faced each there on four previous occasions, with honours even following the Pole’s win in Doha. Sabalenka was caught cold by Swiatek’s more aggressive style of play in that match, a feature of the world No 1’s game that has improved markedly under new coach Tomasz Witkorowski, but the Belarusian vowed she would be ready for anything this time around.

“That match [in Doha] surprised me, because she played super fast and super aggressive, not [like] she used to play, and I would say I was surprised in every point she was making,” said Sabalenka.

“Now as she won three titles in a row, that’s not going to surprise me. I’ll be ready for this game, and I’ll be ready for a fight, and the winners she’s going to make are not going to surprise me. I think mentally that’s going to give me a little power to compete, no matter what.”

One way or another, Sabalenka is no longer in the dark.

The post Sabalenka ousts Badosa to set up Swiatek final in Stuttgart appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Few can appreciate the situation in which Raducanu finds herself better than Swiatek, who likewise won a grand slam title as a teenager without dropping a set when she romped to the title at Roland Garros in 2020. The accomplished manner in which the 20-year-old Pole has since navigated her rise to world No 1 – a position she acquired by default when Ashleigh Barty announced her surprise retirement, but which she has quickly made her own – offers an obvious roadmap for Raducanu to follow as she seeks to establish herself among the game’s elite.

In the last eight of the Stuttgart Open, where she was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Swiatek in a competitive and entertaining match, Raducanu had the chance to observe her rival’s work at close quarters. She will surely be encouraged by how well her game held up in her first meeting with a top-10 player. For a clay-court novice playing just her fifth professional match on the surface – against a former French Open champion riding a 20-match unbeaten streak – Raducanu emerged with immense credit, remaining competitive from start to finish and eventually emerging from the contest with more games than Swiatek’s previous four opponents combined. 

While the British 19-year-old was unable to prevent Swiatek from moving a step closer to a fourth successive title, following Swiatek’s victories in Doha, Indian Wells and Miami, she did not allow her head to drop after losing her opening service game. That setback was to cost Raducanu the opener, but when history repeated itself at the start of the second set, she capitalised on some rare errors from the Pole to secure an immediate love break. And although Swiatek immediately reclaimed the advantage, outmaneuvering her rival to win a lung-busting baseline exchange on her second break point, Raducanu kept fighting and held break points in both the eighth and tenth games. 

By the end, Swiatek was sufficiently rattled to cast a disdainful glance at chair umpire Timo Janzen following an overrule, and that is more change than most have had out of the Pole of late.

Yet for all Raducanu’s ability to live with the world No 1 from the baseline, and despite the frequent excellence of her first serve, the outcome was largely shaped by the superior quality of Swiatek’s second delivery. While the Pole’s vastly improved second serve kicked up viciously, nullifying Raducanu’s trademark ability to take the ball on the rise, Raducanu’s second ball had a habit of sitting up invitingly, allowing Swiatek to step in and make hay. It made for some sobering statistics, with Raducanu winning less than 43% of her second serve points to Swiatek’s 70%, and conceding all but one of the four break points she faced.

Raducanu, who took a medical timeout at 2-1 for what looked like a lower back problem, will also have noted her opponent’s relentless strength and physicality, another area in which – for all the undoubted brilliance of her movement – the teenager will look to improve after her various injury problems this season. 

“When I was playing really fast and really aggressively, I felt like she could really give it back,” said Swiatek, who will face Liudmila Samsonova in the last four after the 31st-ranked Russian came through 7-5, 6-3 against Laura Siegemund of Germany. 

“Even though this surface is pretty tricky and it’s hard to play defence, she did that pretty well sometimes, so I needed to spread her as far as possible. That was my plan, I wanted to be aggressive, but not too much because I felt also like I was playing sometimes too fast, and I missed some balls. So I wanted really to be solid and patient and look for the right ball to approach, and I think I did that pretty well.”

In the first of Friday’s quarter-finals, Paula Badosa survived a second marathon in two days, following her gruelling three-set win over Elena Rybakina in the previous round, to see off seventh seed Ons Jabeur 7-6 (11-9), 1-6, 6-3. 

Jabeur twice served for the opening set and held set points in the tiebreak, but her inability to get over the line proved costly as Badosa shrugged off an imperious second-set display from the Tunisian to see out the decider. 

The Spaniard, who will face Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals after the Belarusian third seed ended Anett Kontaveit’s 22-match indoor unbeaten streak 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, will now rise to a career-high ranking of No 2. 

“The first set, I think it was a very high level from both sides. Either one of us could win it, and I’m very pleased that I could win it,” said Badosa, the second seed. “I was really, really tired and my energy went down.

“She played very well, as well. I was feeling pain everywhere but, as I always say, I’m a fighter and that’s what I want to be remembered for, so I’m really happy that I fought until the last moment.”

The post Swiatek outclasses Raducanu in Stuttgart appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Equipped with a battering-ram forehand, one of the biggest serves in the women’s game and a work ethic that has moulded her into one of the sport’s most formidable athletes, Sakkari has the firepower and physicality to dominate just about anyone on her day. 

The problem for the Greek has been that such days have too rarely come at the business end of tournaments. Sakkari had been undone in all but four of her previous 19 semi-finals going into her showdown with Paula Badosa at Indian Wells, and must have feared further heartbreak when the Spanish defending champion hit back to level the contest after Sakkari had made a dominant start.

That the Greek sixth seed was able to shake off a mid-match lull and reach the biggest final of her career was testimony to the lessons she has learned from those past setbacks.

“I think I started the match really well,” said Sakkari, who broke down in tears after winning 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to avenge her group-stage defeat to Badosa at last year’s WTA Finals. 

“I was very aggressive from the beginning and I was trying to find different ways to play her from the last time I played her in Mexico. I think we had the right strategy. I took my foot off the gas in the second set. Obviously she started playing a lot better, she was more solid. But I’m very proud with the way I came back in the third set.”

Sakkari’s fortitude down the home straight spoke of a self-knowledge forged by adversity. At last year’s French Open, where she came within a point of beating Barbora Krejcikova to reach her first grand slam final, Sakkari was left lamenting her passivity. “I didn’t go for it,” she reflected. “I just didn’t play offensive.”

The hangover from that loss extended all the way to her defeat against Emma Raducanu three months later in the US Open semi-finals, after which she spoke of her failure to “push her with my game” and of “bad memories” from her reversal in Paris.

This time, she was determined there would be no cause for regret. 

The moment of crisis for Sakkari came in the fifth game of the second set, when she paid a heavy price for a moment of hesitation. On the opening point, having gained the upper hand with a deep off-backhand, she failed to get enough penetration on an approach shot, allowing the scrambling Badosa to throw up a deep lob. Again Sakkari demurred, letting the ball bounce rather than going for an overhead, and Badosa capitalised with a booming forehand. It looked like an innocuous moment, but the exchange seemed to unsettle Sakkari, who promptly double-faulted and went on to make a complete hash of a drop shot on the second of three break points. 

With Badosa visibly growing in confidence, Sakkari remained impressively committed to her shots. It was not enough to get her back in the set but, as she later reflected, her willingness to keep hitting through the ball gave her a solid platform from which to launch her challenge in the decider, where she never looked back after breaking in the second game.

“You have to believe in yourself, and I think, as I said many times, I’m turning 27 this year, which is not old, but not young as well, and I’m just more mature and things change in that age,” said Sakkari, who will face Iga Swiatek in the final after the Polish third seed saw off former champion Simona Halep 7-6 (8-6), 6-4.

“Even though I lost the second set, the way I lost it was by playing aggressive, which helped me a lot in the third set.”

For Badosa, a semi-final finish marked a commendable effort as she attempted to defend the title she won so memorably against Victoria Azarenka six months ago. The 24-year-old, seeded fifth, swept into the last four without dropping a set, scoring impressive wins over Leylah Fernandez and Veronika Kudermetova along the way, and was characteristically combative against Sakkari even if she never quite touched the heights of which she is capable. As Badosa acknowledged afterwards, it was largely down to the excellence of an opponent cast in the same powerful, obdurate mould that she came up short.

“I want to congratulate Maria, she really deserved it,” said Badosa. “I thought she played a really good match. I didn’t play my best tennis today. But credit to her, because it was her fault that maybe I didn’t play as well as I wanted.

“She served well. She was moving very well. She was playing very fast. So she didn’t let me [have] a lot of time to build the points.”

If Sakkari is to lift a second title to go with the Morocco Open crown she claimed in Rabat three years ago, she will need to chart a course past Swiatek, whose own newfound commitment to attack under new coach Tomasz Witkorowski has yielded 10 successive WTA 1000 wins. One of those came against Sakkari in the semi-finals in Doha last month, where Swiatek went on to claim the title with a crushing victory over Anett Kontaveit. The 20-year-old did not feel that result would have any bearing on the final, however, the winner of which will rise to No 2 in the world. 

“Maria, matches against her are always really physical,” said the Pole. “I don’t know how I’m going to use the experiences that I had in Doha against her in these conditions, because it’s pretty different.”

Swiatek, who fought back from a set down in her first three matches in the California desert before demolishing Madison Keys 6-1, 6-0 in the quarter-finals, saved two set points in the first-set tiebreak against Halep.

In the men’s draw, Taylor Fritz saw off Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-1 to set up a meeting with Andrey Rublev, the seventh seed, who ran out a 7-5, 6-2 winner against Dimitrov. 

The post Sakkari dethrones Badosa in Indian Wells to set up Swiatek final appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Three years on, appearance and reality have converged. Badosa has played both her matches at this year’s Australian Open with strapping on her thigh and shoulder, and if that lends her the mien of a battle-worn gladiator, it’s because she is. With her 6-3, 6-0 victory over Italy’s Laura Trevisan, a qualifier ranked 111th, the 24-year-old notched up her seventh win in 10 days following her victory at last week’s Sydney International. 

After breaking fresh ground last season, when she made the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, won the biggest title of her career in Indian Wells, and marked her WTA Finals debut with a run to the last four, Badosa has risen from 70th in the world to a career-high sixth. At this point, injury would seem to be the greatest threat to her progress at Melbourne Park, where she is seeded to meet Barbora Krejcikova – her victim in the Sydney final – in the last eight.

“For the moment I can’t complain,” said Badosa, who will play 19-year-old Marta Kostyuk on Friday, when asked whether she thought fatigue might catch up with her at the business end of the tournament.

“It’s going quite well on that. I have that day off [before playing Kostyuk]. If I have to be honest, on that day off I’m not doing anything. I’m touching the racquet 10 minutes per day. It’s how I have to do it, because I was quite tired.  

“But the matches are going quite well, quite fast. The fatigue I’m recovering as much as I can, so I’m quite happy on that. I have a next match that’s quite tricky as well. It will be a tough one. I have almost two days to recover, so that’s very good. I think I will be at 100%.”

She will need to be. Kostyuk, another player who knows what it is to taste junior grand slam success only to be undone by injury and the weight of expectation, has wins over Muguruza, Krejcikova and Daria Kasatkina to her name. Remarkably, it is five years since the 66th-ranked Ukrainian won the junior title at Melbourne Park, and four since she reached the third round of the main draw, the youngest player since 1997 to reach that stage at a slam. Kostyuk beat Badosa’s compatriot Sara Sorribes Tormo, the 32nd seed, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

“We’ve been friends since a long time ago,” said Badosa, “a few years. I’ve been following Marta a lot. I really respect her. She’s a very talented player. When they ask me who can be the next star, I always say Marta. She has a lot of potential. 

“She’s always a dangerous player. I will have to play my best, because I know she likes these kind of matches and she will play her best.”

Sink or swim, Badosa has already had an infinitely better Australian Open than she endured last year, when she was thrust into quarantine after someone on her flight to Melbourne tested positive for Covid, and then contracted the virus herself after a week in a hotel room. She emerged three weeks later, stressed and underprepared, and promptly went out to Russian qualifier Liudmila Samsonova in the first round.

“One year ago I was locked in a room,” Badosa recalled. “So being here and playing centre court, because of me, not because I’m playing a seeded player – because now I’m the seeded player – I’m really happy and proud of myself.”

Badosa has an unblemished career record over Krejcikova, her potential quarter-final opponent, who eased past China’s Wang Xiyu 6-2, 6-3. And with Naomi Osaka on course for a fourth-round collision with Ashleigh Barty – Osaka, the defending champion, beat Madison Brengle 6-4, 6-0 on Wednesday while top seed Barty swept aside Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 – she will be a genuine contender to come through the top half of the draw.

“To play as a favourite, it’s never easy,” said Badosa. “Of course I’m nervous, I’m not going to lie. I have pressure. I try to deal it as much as I can. I try to focus on what I have to do every single point. That’s what I’m doing at the moment. There’s no secret key. I’m just going day by day, and dealing with the pressure.”

The post Battle-worn Badosa marches on at the Australian Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Strict quarantine requirements in her native Queensland meant that, had Barty chosen to defend her title in Mexico, it would probably have been December by the time she made it home. Instead, while her rivals grappled with flying balls and failing breath in the high-altitude conditions of Guadalajara, Barty was finally able to sit back with family and friends and reflect on a stellar season. Six months on the road had brought a career-best five titles – most notably at Wimbledon, where she ended a 41-year wait for an Australian women’s champion – and a third successive year-end No 1 crown. 

Now, after a solid pre-season and a winning start to the year in Adelaide, where she won both the singles and doubles titles, Barty goes into her home slam lightly raced and ready to face the challenge of becoming the first woman since Christine O’Neil in 1978 to lift the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. Not that she will lose any sleep if things don’t work out.

“I can’t do any more than try,” says Barty, whose best performance at Melbourne Park came two years ago, when she reached the semi-finals. 

“That’s all I can do. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I just have to hope that everyone understands I’m giving it my best crack. It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want to. But you go about it the right way, you do the right things and try and give yourself the best chance. That’s all you can do.”

If she is to improve on last year’s unexpected quarter-final defeat to Karolina Muchova, Barty – who will play the Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko in her opener – will first need to get past Naomi Osaka, the defending champion, whom she is scheduled to meet in the fourth round.

After taking a four-month break following September’s shock defeat to Leylah Fernandez at the US Open, Osaka marked her return with an impressive run in Melbourne last week before an abdominal injury forced her to withdraw from her semi-final against Veronika Kudermetova. Happy and excited, she says, to be back at the scene of two of her four grand slam victories, the 24-year-old remains the player to beat on hard courts.

“Playing in the Australian Open means a lot to me,” says the 13th-seeded Osaka, who will open her title defence against Colombia’s Camila Osorio Serrano.

“It’s not the first slam that I won, but I feel like starting the year off here really kind of builds momentum throughout the year. I also think there’s like a different feeling I get when I come to Australia. Everyone is really warm and welcoming. I just remember all the tough battles that I’ve had here.  It’s definitely a very positive feeling.”

Another player with a revitalised outlook is Garbiñe Muguruza. The Spanish third seed comes into the tournament buoyed by last season’s brilliant run to the WTA Finals title, and with a renewed sense of clarity about her game and goals. Her decision to pull out of Adelaide suggests she has learned from the experience of two years ago, when she played tournaments on two different continents in the build-up to the Australian Open, falling ill in the process, before running out of steam in the final against Sofia Kenin. This time around she is rested and ready.

“I really focused on getting the needed rest [in the off-season], because you’re not losing your tennis,” says Muguruza, who was beaten by Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals of this week’s Sydney Tennis Classic. “I think you prioritise getting back the energy, refreshing the mindset and everything. 

“I skipped Adelaide. I normally like to play the first tournament of the year, but I felt like in these circumstances why not go to Sydney. I’m adapting really, every week, to what I feel.”

Muguruza’s willingness to trust to instinct offers a further indication of her renewed belief. Drawn in the same quarter as sixth seed Anett Kontaveit, the Estonian whom she beat twice at the WTA Finals – and who will no doubt be nursing a few psychological scars after missing seven match points against Barbora Krejcikova in Sydney – the 28-year-old has the air of a player who feels her best years lie ahead. 

After her WTA Finals win, her most significant title in four years, Muguruza spoke of how she had never stopped believing she could still produce the tennis that earned her the French Open and Wimbledon titles. Contemplating her opener against Clara Burel of France, the world No 77, she returned to the theme. 

“I feel a lot of emotions when I step on to the Rod Laver court, because I was very close to having this grand slam in my pocket, if that makes sense. I guess I’ll have to try and try as many times as I can. But I’m excited. It gives me the certainty that I can do it. Also, the year when I reached the final was a very tough physical year for me because I got so sick. But I made it. 

“Yeah, why not do it again? Of course, it’s complicated. You have to put so many things together. You know how it is, it’s hard.  But I’ve done it and I believe more than ever that I can do it again.

“I think I’ve always had that belief. I think always believing so strongly in myself whether I was playing good or less good, is what make me just be at the highest level for so many years … Sometimes it gives you a certainty and a character, it builds you different, if you have those grand slams.”

That outlook could prove decisive should Muguruza make her projected last-four appointment with Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian second seed, who has never been beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park, has endured a torrid start to the season, losing in Adelaide to Rebecca Peterson and Kaja Juvan – respectively ranked 82nd and 89th – and serving a total of 39 double faults in the process. 

Reduced to serving underarm at times against Peterson, the distraught Sabalenka was asked by chair umpire Julie Kjendlie if she was OK. “Nothing is wrong, it’s a technical problem,” Sabalenka replied. “I cannot serve better.”

She can, of course, as last year’s barnstorming progress to the last four at Wimbledon and the US Open attests. But with an Aussie awaiting in the first round in the shape of wildcard Storm Sanders, and a potential quarter-final against seventh seed Iga Swiatek, she will need to make the required adjustments to her game and mindset quickly.

Arguably the most intriguing question is who will come through the second quarter of the draw, where Krejcikova and Paula Badosa, two players who made giant strides last season, are projected to face off in the last eight. Krejcikova has been a model of consistency since her breakthrough victory at Roland Garros last summer, and her run to the final in Sydney would suggest she is not about to rest on her laurels after finishing 2021 with three titles. The bad news for the Czech is that it was Badosa, a player tipped by many as a potential world No 1, who came between her and the title, the battling Spaniard prevailing in a third-set tiebreak to record her third win over Krejcikova in three matches.   

The great unknowable is how Emma Raducanu will fare. It is barely four months since the British teenager came through qualifying to win the US Open without dropping a set, but she seems to have packed in a lifetime of experience since, with a veritable blizzard of sponsorship deals and high-profile engagements attracting criticism that she has taken her eye off the ball. 

While it is true that Raducanu has struggled to reproduce the level she showed at Flushing Meadows, such brickbats are patently unfair. She is hardly the first young champion to experience a dip in form after life-changing success, and it is perhaps revealing that she chose to take aim at her critics in a new Nike commercial that shows her hitting strokes against a changing backdrop of short quotations including: “distracted”, “fluke” and “one-hit wonder”. The advert ends with the slogan: “World off. Game on.” 

“The video speaks for itself,” says Raducanu. “That’s how I feel.”

Contracting Covid in Abu Dhabi last month has hardly helped Raducanu’s progress, undermining her hopes of using the off-season to improve her strength and conditioning. The 17th seed wears her elevated status lightly, however, and while others may have lofty expectations, she is just grateful to be making her main draw debut at Melbourne Park.

“I think it’s going to be a very cool experience to play here in the main draw for the first time,” says the 19-year-old, who faces former US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the opening round. 

“I played a few years ago in the juniors. Coming back here playing in the main draw so soon, I feel quite proud of this achievement. It is a bit of a different feel because, back then, we weren’t allowed in the main area. It’s quite fun to see and look around.”

It is too easy to overlook the reality that this is her first full season on the tour, such has been the meteoric nature of her rise. For the time being, however, Raducanu – who now has an experienced, respected coach in her corner in Torben Beltz – is focusing on small steps rather than more giant strides. 

“As long as the trend is trending upwards, just a matter of small fluctuations, I think I can be proud,” she says when asked about the hurdles she has encountered since the US Open. “Whatever challenge that is, I feel kind of ready to face it now.”

The post Australian Open women’s preview: Barty faces big test appeared first on Love Game Tennis.