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.


