Emma Raducanu returns to the US Open for the first time since her 2022 first-round loss as defending champion, keen to avoid a similar fate against American Sofia Kenin.
The British player won the title in New York as a teenage qualifier, but injuries have slowed her trajectory in the intervening years.
Match preview
© Imago
Raducanu's career has not met expectations since her surprising, historic run to the 2021 US Open title, with a series of injuries hindering the 21-year-old.
Back on the WTA Tour since the grass-court season, the British player seeks to give it another go at Flushing Meadows on her return since becoming the third women's singles champion to lose in the opening round after Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2005 and Angelique Kerber in 2017.
That 2022 defeat by Alize Cornet was the last time Raducanu was seen in the main draw in New York, and she hopes to advance to a second match at the final Slam of the year and build on her fourth-round run at Wimbledon a few weeks back.
Raducanu was a beneficiary of avoiding the clay-court season to prepare for the Championships, and she opted against participating at the Paris Olympics for a similar reason before her US Open return, hoping for another commendable showing.
While her first decent-to-good showing at a major came this year after several second-round exits, the British player's only ever round-one defeat has come at Flushing Meadows, and she hopes to keep it that way on Tuesday.
© Reuters
Her opponent is the one-time Slam champion Kenin, who will back herself for a second match on home soil, relieved to have avoided Iga Swiatek this time.
The American exited in round one in Australia and SW19 in her tournament-opening matches against the World No. 1, and the 2020 champion Down Under will hope a comparatively favourable draw leads to a positive outcome.
When she did not face Swiatek at the French Open, Kenin reached the third round in Paris before falling to Clara Tauson in straight sets, her joint-best run at a major since reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2021, a year after losing to — you guessed it — Swiatek in the 2020 final on Court Philippe Chatrier.
However, the American player's preparation for the final major of the year has been far from ideal, highlighted by round-one exits in Washington and Toronto before a second-round elimination in Cleveland about a week ago.
It remains to be seen if Kenin shakes off those setbacks against Raducanu, but the World No. 54 hopes to secure success and take advantage of her kind quarter of the draw.
Head To Head
Tuesday's match will be the first meeting between these previous Grand Slam champions, even if Raducanu enters this year's US Open as the 72nd-ranked player while Kenin is 54th in the world.
While the American has won five WTA career titles to Raducanu's one, the British player has had a superior 2024, underlined by notching 18 wins in 29 matches, 10 more than her opponent, whose 8-20 win-loss record this year typifies her broader struggles in the singles circuit.
We say: Raducanu to win in three sets
Despite being unseeded, Tuesday's match between one-time Grand Slam champions should be all shades of fun, and we are backing Raducanu to beat Kenin due to her superior form in the lead-up to the tournament and banish the memories of that 2022 round-one loss to Cornet.
