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Raducanu’s US Open title defense ends with loss to Cornet

NEW YORK: Maybe Emma Raducanu was simply trying to lower others’ expectations or make things easier on herself when she scoffed at the idea that there might by any pressure on her as she returned to the site of her remarkable out-of-nowhere run to the 2021 US Open championship. Sure sounded so when she declared, shortly before the start of play at Flushing Meadows: “I think defending a title is just something that the press makes up.” Either way, her follow-up trip to New York did not last long. Raducanu became just the third woman in the professional era to lose in the first round one year after winning the US Open title, bowing out 6-3, 6-3 against Alizé Cornet on Tuesday night.

Defending champion Emma Raducanu crashes out in first round of US Open

The 11th seeded Briton becomes the first defending US Open champion to lose in the first round since Germany's Angelique Kerber in 2017. Raducanu captivated the sporting world when she became the first qualifier to claim a Grand Slam title, winning 10 matches in New York without dropping a set, catapulting her career into the stratosphere and making her one of the most marketable athletes on the planet.

US Open 2022: Rafael Nadal Overcomes Scare To Reach Second Round

Four-time champion Rafael Nadal overcame dropping the first set to defeat Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata at the US Open first round on Tuesday. Nadal triumphed 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 over his 198th-ranked opponent to register his 65th career win in New York. The 36-year-old Spaniard, who is chasing a 23rd Grand Slam title and third of 2022, next faces Fabio Fognini. Nadal holds a 13-4 career lead over the Italian but Fognini famously defeated him from two sets down in the third round of the US Open in 2015.