What Emma Raducanu must do next as issues mount up for bruised US Open champion

It has been another week the US Open champion may want to forget, but how can Briton get her season back on track ahead of this month's major in New York? Telegraph Sport explains. . .

Emma Raducanu’s defeat by world No 60 Liudmila Samsonova in Washington DC was just her latest against much lower-ranked players.

Despite a bright start, the 19-year-old squandered a 5-2 lead in the first-set tie-break, losing 8-6 – and then things started to fall apart. Errant groundstrokes and inconsistent serving cost Raducanu the second set 6-1.

Just 22 days out from the US Open, where she will defend her title, Britain’s No 1-ranked female tennis player – and on paper the 10th-best female in the world – has many issues to address.

In New York last September, she beat five top-50 ranked opponents on her way to the title. Since then, though, her form has been patchy. She has chalked up impressive victories against fellow US Open champion Sloane Stephens and French Open doubles champion Caroline Garcia – as well as making the quarter-finals of three WTA Tour events. A 6-4, 6-4 defeat by world No 1 Iga Swiatek showed that Raducanu can go toe-to-toe with the best and it is not her overall ability in question.

Since New York, though, she has played in 16 tournaments and been knocked out by a lower-ranked player 14 times.

Her 2022 record stands at: P23, L13, W10, suffering first-round exits in Sydney, Guadalajara, Miami, Rome and Nottingham.

Despite her age, questions are starting to be asked of Raducanu’s endurance. During her US Open run, she beat 10 opponents in 17 days without dropping a set. Of the 19 lower-level pro tournaments she played before 2021, Raducanu retired from four of them.

Since her US Open victory, she has retired from