‘It sucks, but it’s fine’ – Raducanu crashes out

Coco Gauff won against Emma Raducanu 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Wednesday night. She’ll face the winner of the match between Chinese Qinwen Zheng, the No 29 seed, and American Bernarda Pera in the next round

Emma Raducanu, AO 2023 AI/Reuters/Panoramic

Tennis Majors

January 18, 2023

Australian Open •Second round • completed

See draw

E. RaducanuvsC. Gauff

Emma Raducanu was pragmatic after being knocked out of the Australian Open by Coco Gauff, the No 7 seed.

“She is a great mover, great athlete,” she said of her opponent afterwards. “Puts another ball in play, so you feel like you have to squeeze it closer to the line and then she kind of teases errors out of you that way.

“But, yeah, I think she’s a good athlete. It’s one of her strengths, I would say.

Raducanu: All the chips were against us

The 20-year-old has been troubled with injury since winning the US Open as a qualifier in 2021, most recently rolling her ankle in the lead-up to Melbourne.

And she admitted that her match fitness was an issue against a top-class opponent.

“I would say, like, all the chips were against us, and the chances of me playing this tournament were very, very low. So I had extremely limited practice time, and I think I can say that now I’m not, like, competing any more,” she laughed.

“But, yeah, it was obviously going to be a push to get me on the court. I think 13 days ago if you would have told us, like, ‘Hey, you’re going to be in the draw and win a round,’ it would have been a massive effort for sure.

“Saying that, I still think I didn’t necessarily play my best today. Although, like, the second set I had chances and were pushing, it was still I felt like I could have done better myself.”

Britain’s Emma Raducanu walks off the court after losing her second round match against Coco Gauff of the U.S. (AI/Reuters/Panoramic)

Hearing that some pundits had been speculating that she might have picked up another knock during the match, she added: “As I said, I think that the limited practice time is difficult to play matches and be in that sort of condition. But, yeah, I think we did a great job to get onto the court this week. Obviously I’ve just got a lot of work to do from here and just looking forward.”

In the previous round, Raducanu, ranked No 77, won against German Tamara Korpatsch (6-3, 6-2).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):