Emma Raducanu believes that her heavy defeat by Iga Swiatek in the second round of the French Open has illustrated the distance between herself and the best players in the world and her need to keep improving.
Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion and the fifth seed in Paris this year, produced an imperious performance to defeat the Briton 6-1, 6-2 and reach the third round. Swiatek is attempting to win her fourth successive French Open singles title, a feat that has never been achieved by a female player in the open era.
“Iga played really well today,” Raducanu said. “I think every time we have played she plays really well. It puts a lot of pressure on me from the beginning, makes me feel like I have to maybe do something extra or I just don’t know what to do in the moment. It does shift the dynamics of the match a bit, and then it’s very difficult to stay with her as she grows in confidence. It just shows, I guess, the distance that I have to improve.”
Although she has performed well against lower-ranked players recently, Raducanu has one win and 10 defeats in her matches against players in the top eight in her career, winning only one set in those 10 defeats. She has lost all five of her matches against Swiatek, who has won every time in straight sets. Along with her far superior level and achievements, Swiatek notes that Raducanu just feels like a good matchup to her.
“There are players that just have the ball; that for some of us it’s a little bit easier, others don’t like it,” Swiatek said. “There are some players that you just kind of know what you’re going to do a little bit. I just think it’s a [good] matchup.”
Despite how comprehensively she was beaten on the biggest stage, Raducanu enjoyed a positive clay-court season and she has made genuine progress. She has improved on the surface and gained a greater understanding of how to optimise her game, which should only help as she shifts to the grass-court season. It is clear, however, that her game is still too underpowered against the top players, which is only accentuated on slower surfaces.
“There are certain things I just know I need to do better,” Raducanu said. “Against the top players, I can’t hide away from that. I don’t feel demotivated. I feel like since Miami I have really started building some momentum compared to where I came from at the start of the year and it makes me just want to keep going after a couple days off and then get on the grass.”
