Raducanu can learn from Gauff ‘maturity’ after defeat
Emma Raducanu started to digest the brutal reality of another premature grand slam exit during that lonely walk to the net after succumbing to the supreme Coco Gauff. Her second-round Australian Open defeat ensures a fifth successive grand slam departure at this stage or sooner since her stunning US Open
triumph as an 18-year-old. And yet, when the Briton analyses this absorbing first-ever meeting between two of the game’s rising stars, there will be hope and genuine encouragement to build on.
Even beyond her game, a week ago there was not only doubt but serious trepidation surrounding her involvement at Melbourne Park. The tears had flown in Auckland and energy had undoubtedly frittered away in the final hours before her firstround victory over Tamara Korpatsch. But having erased lingering doubts surrounding the reliability of her left ankle, Raducanu, in defeat, grasped her chance to validate a game not yet tested enough against the elite.
While fleeting, this has been a courageous journey in Melbourne, as parts of her game sparkle and others infuriate. Her character on the court could become a pillar of her quest to at least return to a grand slam final stage in the coming years. Both players endured a sluggish start, yet it was Gauff who rallied faster and held off Raducanu, scratching and clawing to force a decider, clinching a 6-3 7-6 (4) win after a cagey tiebreaker. But Raducanu outgunned Gauff across an hour and 40 minutes, landing 17 winners to the American’s 13, with her wand of a backhand especially impressive.
Gauff so often forces you into that final shot, surviving on the periphery of the court, yet routinely extending the point. And it ensured doubts started to creep in amid Gauff’s mesmeric spell at each swing of momentum. Yet Raducanu remained resolute and with a faster start might just have prevailed here. There was the fourth game in the first set to immediately break back and a similar charge evened the contest at four games apiece in the second.
A gritty eight-minute game at 5-4 with Raducanu squandering two set points ought to have broken her, yet there was a laserlike focus shortly after Gauff’s resilience had radiated around Rod Laver Arena. Immense precision on serve delivered a game to love, especially satisfying under the circumstances. Raducanu must savour how her game mirrored Gauff’s for long spells, while sharpening that ruthless streak, as the American survived
too often, resisting twice as many break points with eight in total.
There is surely an exciting future in the months ahead if Raducanu can resist injury, which has seen her play 50 matches less as a professional and only half as many grand slam events. In fact, Gauff underlined experience as a pivotal factor to the outcome. “I stayed calm when I needed to and made the serve when I needed to,” Gauff said. “Held when I needed to. I think that definitely comes with maturity. I feel like in the past, I would have freaked out in that moment.”
Raducanu felt the need to “squeeze it closer to the line” due to Gauff’s looming presence, which “kind of teases errors out of you that way”, underlining a psychological edge that will only grow with each encounter like this. Consistency and composure evaded Raducanu here but it is no coincidence this was such a steely display, having consumed Andy Murray’s remarkable fiveset triumph over Matteo Berrettini a day earlier.
“I watched four sets of it. It was incredible,” Raducanu said, having paused practice to witness the Scot’s latest gutsy effort. “He is such a role model for everyone in British tennis but also I think on the tour, what he is doing and achieving.” This defeat stings a little but Raducanu can emerge from this trip down under galvanised and eager to establish herself once more at the top.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal admitted he felt “mentally destroyed” after the defence of his Australian Open title ended in injury and defeat by American Mackenzie McDonald in the second round. The top seed was already in trouble at a set and a break down to unseeded McDonald when he crouched down in obvious pain clutching his left hip after chasing out wide for a forehand.
Nadal called for the trainer after limping through the rest of the game and headed off court for treatment. A retirement seemed on the cards, with the Spaniard’s wife Maria crying in the stands, but he opted to continue despite his movement clearly being impeded. Nadal managed to hold his serve until the 11th game, roared on by fans still believing he could somehow turn things around, but it was a case of when not if McDonald would find a way through and he finished off a 6-4 6-4 7-5 victory.
Nadal revealed he had come into the match with an issue in his hip that then became significantly worse. He said: “It has been a couple of days like this, but nothing like today in that movement. We’re going to start talking about that now, but I don’t know what’s going on, if it’s muscle, if it’s joint. I have history in the hip. I had to do treatments in the past, address it a little (but there) was not this amount of problem. Now I feel I cannot move.
“In the end, I can’t complain about my life at all. Just in terms of sports and in terms of injuries and tough moments, that’s another one. I just can’t say that I am not destroyed mentally at this time, because I will be lying.”
British No 1 Cameron Norrie toiled away into the early hours of the morning (in Australia) to defeat Constant Lestienne and reach the third round. Persistent rain in Melbourne meant the match, which was last on the schedule, did not begin until 10pm local time having been moved to an outside court.
There were a few more brief stops for drizzle, disruption by rowdy spectators and plenty of twists and turns before Norrie finally wrapped up a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (2) 6-3 victory over his unseeded
French opponent at 1.28am. A handful of fans, some wrapped in blankets to keep out the unseasonal chill, stayed to the end as Norrie moved through to a third-round clash with talented young Czech Jiri Lehecka.
The late night meant a tricky few hours for the umpire, who sent three English spectators, beer cans in hand, from the court after abusing Norrie at the end of the first set and also told a fan off for loudly swearing during the fourth. Norrie took it in good spirits, saying: “In the first set there was a lot of English fans. And they had the football chants going, which was good fun, and then obviously they got kicked out.
“I could still hear them in the second set. But it was a great atmosphere. It’s great obviously on one of the outside courts for them to stay around and support, especially playing so late and cold and everything, so it definitely spurred me on and got me through it, especially in that third set.”
Andy Murray will play home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis this morning (around 9am UK time) in the second round as his reward for coming through a gruelling five-set epic against No 13 seed Matteo Berrittini.
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