WHAT HAPPENED: The 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina beat the 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu in their third-round clash in Louis Armstrong Stadium on Friday, 6-1, 6-2.
Raducanu had said before the start of the tournament that 2025 marked “the first time I feel like I can come back to the US Open and really enjoy the memories” after winning the 2021 women’s singles trophy, then being ousted in the first round in 2022 and 2024. On Friday, the 22-year-old Brit received plenty of encouragement (and “vamanos”) from her new coach, Francisco Roig (Rafael Nadal’s former coach).
Even so, her game quickly unraveled. Rybakina easily won the first set 6-1, largely on her first serve despite making more unforced errors (10 to Raducanu’s five).
In the second set, Rybakina kept the pressure on, never allowing Raducanu to string together more than a few consecutive points. Whenever Raducanu made a winner or held serve, the noonday crowd (which included longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour) roared with approval. Even so, Rybakina was never in danger of being broken. She served for the match with a 5-2 lead, after just 60 minutes of play and seized the win on the first match point, when Raducanu’s backhand return went long.
“I’m pretty happy with the way I played today. It’s not easy to play Emma,” Rybakina said. “Sometimes the score doesn’t show, but she’s a tough competitor.”
Raducanu said of Rybakina, “I thought she did everything better today. She didn't let me settle in every department. It was hard to really capitalize on the few moments that I had. Every ball was so difficult that I was receiving. Then I was kind of shocked when I got a shorter ball. But I tried to mix it up with my return position.
“I've just got… to keep working to try and close the gap. A match like that can easily kind of get you down if you let it. So I'm going to try not do that, and regroup, work hard, and get ready for Asia."
As for her new coach, Roig, Raducanu said, “We're working through to the end of the year. I'm looking forward to getting back to work, really. Today, my weaknesses were highlighted, but it's only been three weeks, and he can't really work miracles. I know we're doing good work, and I just look forward to continuing.”
WHAT IT MEANS: The US Open is the only Grand Slam in which Rybakina has yet to make the quarterfinal. She was the 2022 Wimbledon champion and runner-up at the 2023 Australian Open.
Next for Rybakina, is a fourth-round meeting with either No. 7 Jasmine Paolini (last year’s runner up at both Wimbledon and the French Open) or 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova.
MATCH POINT: Rybakina is now 2-0 against Raducanu. In their only previous meeting, in 2022 in Sydney, Rybakina dropped a single game to Raducanu in a straight-set victory.
