FILE – Emma Raducanu, of Britain, returns a shot to Alize Cornet, of France, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships, Aug. 30, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
NEW YORK— Emma Raducanu finished up practice at the U.S. Open on Friday by hitting with a young girl she asked fans on social media to help her find after they couldn’t connect a day earlier.
Raducanu is back at the tournament she surprisingly won three years ago, and she shrugs off questions about whether she’s played enough matches to be ready for it.
Her 2021 U.S. Open title is still Raducanu’s only one on the WTA Tour, and she didn’t even play in Flushing Meadows last year because of injuries. The 21-year-old from England has played fewer than 30 matches this year and passed up chances to be more active, but doesn’t second-guess her preparation for the final Grand Slam of the season.
“Even when I won the U.S. Open, I only played a few tournaments that year,” Raducanu said. “Yes, they were closer together, but I’m not in any big rush to play those. I think I’d rather target tournaments and play the tournaments that I’m entered in.”
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After losing in the fourth round of Wimbledon in July in her home Grand Slam, Raducanu chose not to play in the Olympics and made just one appearance on the North American hard-court swing, losing in the third round in Washington.
She decided not to play in Canada — where she was born and holds a passport — and then opted to return to Britain to practice, rather than attempt to play any more tournaments ahead of her return to New York, where she will face 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the first round.
While some players crave match time, Raducanu said that just isn’t her.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be the player who’s playing, like, close to 30 events a year,” she said. “I think that’s not my style. It never has been.”
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She couldn’t play too many in 2023, missing the second half of the year after undergoing surgery on both wrists and an ankle. So her only appearance at the U.S. Open after becoming the first player to come through qualifying to win a Grand Slam tournament in 2021 was a first-round loss to Alize Cornet the following year.
Raducanu said she feels more ready to play in New York this time and got in some extra practice Friday with a 7-year-old fan who had watched her a day earlier and yelled out that Raducanu was her favorite player. Raducanu apologized on social media later that she had to rush off after that workout and they couldn’t meet, asking followers to help her find the girl.
She did Friday, and invited the fan down to hit with her on the court.
“She barely missed a ball and she has a lot of courage to kind of go onto the court with a lot of people watching and start hitting balls, and it was nice to meet her and speak to her,” Raducanu said. “Obviously I felt incredibly bad about yesterday but I feel good and I feel happy that I was able to connect with her today.”
Raducanu knows that critics of her career choices question whether she’s ready to win the U.S. Open. Seeing her name on the trophy and her picture among the champions on the grounds reminds her she has — and can again.
“I think that’s such an epic achievement and these two weeks I completed it,” she said. “So for me coming back here now, I come back with such a different outlook and just joy and promise, and it inspires me to want to do more.”