Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka both lose in US Open first round
Emma Raducanu, left, was the lowest ranked player in the draw. She lost in the first round to Naomi Osaka of Japan 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.
Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka both lost in the first round of the US Open.
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Shanna Schmierek, left, defeated Naomi Osaka, right, in the first round of the US Open. Schmierek captured the first set and the match went to a tiebreaker. (USOPEN.com)
Syracuse, N.Y. — In the end, it was a battle of attrition, two tennis stars with the talent to overcome the game’s inherent flaws.
Emma Raducanu, the top seed in the US Open first round, fell to the seventh seed from Japan 6-3, 2-6, 6-0, while, at the other end of the draw, Naomi Osaka, the No. 7 seed, advanced despite being up against one of the best players in the world.
For Raducanu, it was no surprise. In her opening match against Jelena Ostapenko, who stunned Raducanu in the 2017 Open, she was handed a rough first round. To her credit however, Raducanu fought with aplomb and held her own to advance to the second round.
Osaka, meanwhile, played in a one-sided match. She stunned Venus Williams in the first round in 2017, in a match that was tied at the end of the first set before the reigning champion prevailed and earned her a berth to the third round. Osaka, at No. 3 in the world, came into the match ranked No. 5. Her ranking has plummeted from No. 10 to No. 6, however.
The second set was tense as it went back-and-forth, but Osaka finally broke Raducanu in the eighth game to earn a decisive victory.
In the opening set, Osaka was up a set and a break with the score