Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka both lose in US Open first round tiebreakers
Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka both lost in their first-round matches, respectively, in the US Open.
Raducanu, the Romanian, lost at 8-6, 11-9 against Madison Keys on Thursday. On Friday, she followed up with a loss to Naomi Osaka, who was trying to win her first Grand Slam tournament.
The 24-year-old Osaka, a 22-year-old Japanese, lost at 6-3, 6-4 to Angelique Kerber on Thursday. Osaka now sits at 16th in the world rankings.
Raducanu made a strong start at the tournament, winning the opening set 6-3. She went down to Osaka in the following game, who then held Raducanu for the rest of the points. Osaka came back to win 11-9, 6-2.
Raducanu and Osaka are two of 16 players to lose in their first-round matches at the US Open this year.
Raducanu is one of two players on the women’s tour who have gone 0-7 in her first-set win, the other being Carla Suarez Navarro with a loss to Elena Vesnina at the 2012 US Open.
“I’m angry because I was in the locker room, so I didn’t see this coming,” Raducanu told reporters after her loss to Keys. “I thought that she was playing very strong, and I told her how I was going to play at all points of the match. She was playing really well.”
Osaka, meanwhile, lost to Kerber in the first round at the 2017 French Open on Sunday. She lost the first set 6-2, but had won five of the first six games and five of the first seven points against Kerber – who is now 26 and in her second Grand Slam tournament after being seeded 11th at the French Open.
Osaka is now at 13th in the world rankings, and currently has one WTA Tour match remaining before her season starts.
“I’m so happy. Just to have won the first day of the tournament was amazing