Emma Raducanu: British No 1 at loss to explain horror start against Solana Sierra as she makes early exit at French Open | Tennis News

An emotional Emma Raducanu was at a loss to explain her horror start at the French Open as she crashed to a first opening-round loss in Paris.

The British No 1 failed to win a game in a one-sided opening set against Argentina’s Solana Sierra, hitting zero winners and making 15 unforced errors.

Raducanu looked like she could be heading for one of the worst defeats of her career when she trailed 4-1 in the second set but she found a belated foothold, fighting back to force a tie-break before losing 6-0 7-6 (4).

“It was difficult,” said the 23-year-old, who made 42 unforced errors. “I don’t think I’ve fully processed it yet, so it’s hard to speak about the match right now.

“But I have to at least take the fact that, from a set and 4-1 down, I came back and made it competitive in the second set. I’m pretty disappointed. Obviously I wanted to do better.

“I went on the court, I felt like the conditions were extremely lively and I felt like I wasn’t able to trust my shots and didn’t feel like I had control over the ball.

“Probably just a bit light on matches, a bit light on confidence coming into the tournament.

“The first set happened super quickly, and it’s not a nice feeling when the points and the games are going very, very fast. I’m glad at least in the second set I was able to get a few games on the board.”

Raducanu keeps picking herself up

Raducanu had looked eager and confident in practice having reunited with US Open-winning coach Andrew Richardson earlier this week but she arrived in Paris having played only one match in two and a half months after struggling with a post-viral illness.

She is still bothered by a lingering cough that was aggravated by the clay blown up off the court, and it will clearly take time for Raducanu to find a groove again after this latest break from the tour.

The weight of everything she has been through since her life-changing win in New York in 2021 has taken a toll, and tears welled up in her eyes when she was asked how she had kept picking herself back up.

“It’s very difficult,” she said. “You need a lot of resilience. I’m trying my best each day, and that’s all I can ask of myself.”

No regrets coming to Paris

Raducanu will turn her attention to the grass-court season, where she has traditionally performed strongly, and the build-up to the HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club starting on June 8.

But she insisted she did not regret coming back for the end of the clay season, saying: “In hindsight, after the two matches I’ve played, it could have been nice to have saved yourself the match like today.

“It will help me. I haven’t played matches and it’s obviously very difficult coming in not having had any matches towards the back end of the clay season and these girls having tournament after tournament of confidence and wins. That was pretty tricky for me.

“I didn’t necessarily do as well as I’d like to this year but the only way to face and improve how I’m feeling is to go through the tough parts, to go through the pain of it, and hopefully come out on the other side better and stronger.”

Wilander: Big times are coming for Raducanu

Seven-time Grand Slam champion and former world No 1 Mats Wilander, speaking about Raducanu on TNT Sports:

“Tennis has improved so much on the women’s side that you have to have a big weapon today and with Raducanu, she doesn’t necessarily have a big weapon on either the forehand or the backhand but the weapon to me is her movement and trying to take the ball early.

“Is that going to be enough? Maybe not on a clay-court but we know she’s got the mind for it because you don’t win a Grand Slam tournament unless you’ve got a really strong mind. So it’s all physical that she’s not back. Obviously she has to stay injury free but I still think there’s big times coming for Emma Raducanu.”

Discussing her coaching changes, the Swede said: “There are so many coaches out there and we want success so quickly as young players. As a generation maybe they want the answers very quickly so therefore they go and change coach.

“I believe you have to stick with the same coach. At least you have to give the coach a couple of years and one year is just not enough but I think this is a good relationship again.”

Former British No 1 Johanna Konta said: “Do I think expectations are as high on her? Yes and no! People for a long time were waiting for that but now less so but it won’t be a surprise again if it does happen. Therefore there’s a certain amount of expectation that will always be there. There’s no going back. There’s not any version where you can go back to basics. You have to keep moving forward.

“Tennis keeps moving forward and you have to adapt to it. I don’t think you have to revolutionise who you are because who you are is what got you there but you need to keep adding to yourself. You have to keep being unpredictable enough so players don’t figure you out.”

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