12th seed Emma Raducanu suffers a shock early exit after losing in the second round of the French Open
Emma Raducanu loses to unseeded Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 1-6, 1-6 in the second round of the Roland Garros. The French Open is the last of the Grand Slams that Raducanu is making her debut at and, for a set it looked as if she was in full control of the contest before conceding an easy victory to her opponent from Belarus.
The result continues a strong season for Sasnovich, who has improved her ranking from No.91 at the end of 2021 to No.47 thanks to an overall season record of 21-10. This is Sasnovich’s second win over much higher-ranked Raducanu.
Raducanu, who suffered a back injury in the run-up to Roland Garros, finishes her first-ever clay-court swing with an overall 6-5 record. The 19-year-old has successfully reached at least the second round on her debut at each of the four majors
Since winning the US Open, Raducanu has 9-12 win record on the WTA tour. This is not an impressive stat by any standards and has put a huge question mark over Raducanu’s consistency and capabilities. Fans on Twitter haven’t been too kind – few of them terming her US Open win as a ‘one-off success’.
“Good to see – enjoyed this match thoroughly – Sasnovich is underrated, just as Raducanu is overrated – back to England and back to the ITF circuit where she might win more than she loses”, wrote a fan who clearly doesn’t seem to rate the British teenager.
Another fan was more kind towards the Brit and appreciated Sasnovich for playing better on the better.”Emma didn’t even play bad. Sasnovich just played some of the best tennis of her career. Emma can’t catch a break”, he tweeted.
“Very Very poor from Emma, Sasnovich played well but Emma was way off , couldn’t raise her game at all , long way to go for Emma”, tweeted another disappointed fan.
“World’s greatest mysteries should include how she won the US Open”, joked a user.
Another fan feels that Emma lacks in fitness and is not able to maintain the same tempo over the whole duration of a match. “I noticed Emma looks unfit to hold and win a 3 set match.She looses her breath easily and doesnt have the physical tenacity to keep strong till the end”, she wrote.
More Tennis news
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates