Raducanu outclassed by Swiatek at French Open

In their French Open second-round encounter, Emma Raducanu’s miserable performance against Iga Swiatek persisted.

The British number two lost all five of her matches to the five-time Grand Slam champion after falling to 6-1, 6-2 on the clay in Paris.

The conflict between the top-ranked players on the WTA Tour and the 41st-ranked Raducanu was once more rehashed.

As fifth seed Swiatek rattled off five games in a row, 22-year-old Raducanu quickly lost her way after being unable to convert a break point in the opening game.

As the 23-year-old from Poland secured the opening set in 35 minutes, Raducanu’s second serve was put under serious pressure and her groundstrokes grew more ragged.

Swiatek, who has won four of the previous five Roland Garros titles, is known as the “Queen of Clay” for her impressive performance in this match, which gave her 2-1 lead in the second set.

There are some questions about her level after a subpar clay-court swing, though, and they came up again when Raducanu threatened to retaliate right away.

In a drawn-out fourth game, Swiatek was able to save three break points, one of which is crucial between players of her status and Raducanu, by maintaining her intensity under pressure.

Over the past three months, Raducanu has made positive progress from the outside.

After suffering from injuries for a while, the 2021 US Open champion has since climbed back into the top 50 and made progress by reaching the Miami Open quarter-finals and the Italian Open last 16.

Since appointing Mark Petchey as her coach in an “informal” arrangement in March, that has been a benefit of playing with more freedom.

However, she was unable to accomplish that against Swiatek.

Swiatek’s depth of return and ability to change angles contributed to a more rigid approach, but Raducanu’s ball-striking was also subpar.

It was difficult to keep up the rallies with Swiatek, which demonstrated how difficult it is for Raducanu to find returning ball after ball in the face of intense competition from the leading stars.

Coco Gauff, the second-ranked American, was the subject of a similar incident earlier this month on the clay in Rome.

Even though Raducanu has undoubtedly made progress with her resilience, it is clear that she still has a way to go despite only winning three of her 14 professional matches against top-10 players.

One of the most challenging challenges in the game is to defeat Swiatek on the red dirt because clay is not her natural surface.