No one seriously expected Emma Raducanu to beat Iga Swiatek in her second round match at the French Open. Swiatek, a four-time champion in Paris, is nicknamed the ‘Queen of Clay’, having won 37 of her 39 matches at Roland Garros. Even so, few will have anticipated the scale of the drubbing that took place. Raducanu admitted ‘I have to improve’ after being completely outplayed during the 6-1, 6-2 defeat. One match commentator even went as far as to describe Raducanu as ‘Iga’s personal ball machine’. That is cruel and unfair. Raducanu was simply outclassed by a far better opponent and given a brutal lesson in tennis at the highest level. The Briton was out-thought, outplayed and swiftly dispatched in just one hour and 19 minutes. It was as one-sided as it gets: Raducanu simply had no answers to Swiatek’s obvious superiority on clay. The only consolation for Raducanu is that her opponent has done worse to even better players than her.
Put simply, Raducanu is a middling tennis player, trying her best, which isn’t good enough on most days
‘I think Iga played really well today’, Raducanu said after the match.
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