‘It sucks, but it’s fine’ – Raducanu crashes out
Coco Gauff won against Emma Raducanu 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Wednesday night. She’ll face the winner of the match between Chinese Qinwen Zheng, the No 29 seed, and American Bernarda Pera in the next round
Emma Raducanu, AO 2023 AI/Reuters/Panoramic
Emma Raducanu was pragmatic after being knocked out of the Australian Open by Coco Gauff, the No 7 seed.
“She is a great mover, great athlete,” she said of her opponent afterwards. “Puts another ball in play, so you feel like you have to squeeze it closer to the line and then she kind of teases errors out of you that way.
“But, yeah, I think she’s a good athlete. It’s one of her strengths, I would say.
“But I think I had a lot of chances today, and I was creating quite a few. So, yeah, it obviously sucks a bit, but it’s fine.”
Raducanu: All the chips were against us
The 20-year-old has been troubled with injury since winning the US Open as a qualifier in 2021, most recently rolling her ankle in the lead-up to Melbourne.
And she admitted that her match fitness was an issue against a top-class opponent.
“I would say, like, all the chips were against us, and the chances of me playing this tournament were very, very low. So I had extremely limited practice time, and I think I can say that now I’m not, like, competing any more,” she laughed.
“But, yeah, it was obviously going to be a push to get me on the court. I think 13 days ago if you would have told us, like, ‘Hey, you’re going to be in the draw and win a round,’ it would have been a massive effort for sure.
“Saying that, I still think I didn’t necessarily play my best today. Although, like, the second set I had chances and were pushing, it was still I felt like I could have done better myself.”
Hearing that some pundits had been speculating that she might have picked up another knock during the match, she added: “As I said, I think that the limited practice time is difficult to play matches and be in that sort of condition. 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.”
In the previous round, Raducanu, ranked No 77, won against German Tamara Korpatsch (6-3, 6-2).
Melbourne (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):
- Kimberly Birrell vs. Linda Fruhvirtova
- Donna Vekic vs. Liudmila Samsonova
- Anna Karolina Schmiedlova vs. Camila Giorgi
- Lauren Davis vs. Elise Mertens
- Aryna Sabalenka vs. Shelby Rogers
- Leylah Fernandez vs. Caroline Garcia
- Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Laura Siegemund
- Taylor Townsend vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
- Anett Kontaveit vs. Magda Linette
- Katie Volynets vs. Veronika Kudermetova
- Yulia Putintseva vs. Karolina Pliskova
- Qinwen Zheng vs. Bernarda Pera
- Karolina Muchova vs. Danielle Collins
- Olivia Gadecki vs. Marta Kostyuk
- Nadia Podoroska vs. Victoria Azarenka
- Elena Rybakina vs. Kaja Juvan
- Kateryna Baindl beat Catherine McNally: 6-1, 7-6 (4)
- Madison Keys (10) beat Xinyu Wang: 6-3, 6-2
- Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Clara Burel (Q): 6-4, 6-1
- Cristina Bucsa (Q) beat Bianca Andreescu: 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4
- Lin Zhu beat Jil Teichmann (32): 6-2, 6-2
- Jelena Ostapenko (17) beat Anna Bondar: 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-0
- Anhelina Kalinina beat Petra Kvitova (15): 7-5, 6-4
- Jessica Pegula (3) beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich: 6-2, 7-6 (5)
- Maria Sakkari (6) beat Diana Shnaider (Q): 3-6, 7-5, 6-3
- Iga Swiatek (1) beat Camila Osorio: 6-2, 6-3
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