The great champions have a gift for rising to the big occasion, a knack for producing their best tennis at the moment of greatest need, when the stakes are highest and the scrutiny at its most intense. Emma Raducanu has had her share of setbacks since her improbable run to the US Open title but, back on the big stage at Melbourne Park, and facing a fellow grand slam champion in Sloane Stephens, she offered a reminder of the qualities that have underpinned her meteoric rise.
Gone, for the most part, were the uncertainties of approach and execution that had brought just two wins from her six matches since that heady September night in New York. In their stead were assurance, composure, intelligence. The self-assurance of a grand slam champion who, for the first 17 minutes, looked every inch the part as she conceded just four points. The composure, on her main draw debut at the Australian Open, to absorb a gritty comeback from a rival who, for all Raducanu’s early excellence, initially looked thoroughly out of sorts. And the intelligence, down the home straight, to make the tactical adjustments required to see out victory.
“I played a great first set,” said Raducanu after prevailing 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 in the battle of current and former US Open champions. “I executed my game plan pretty well and was making very few unforced errors.
“But of course, because Sloane is a great champion, she was fighting back in the second set. Her defensive skills were pretty inspiring, actually, for me to try and replicate myself later on. So we got into some long rallies. She turned it around.
“Then, in the third set, I’m just glad I could regroup and make less errors again and play some good tennis.”
It was a characteristically insightful appraisal from the 19-year-old. A hard-fought contest that featured some fine tennis from both women, not to mention a significant number of unforced errors – 42 for Stephens, 30 by Raducanu – was played out in three acts.
For a set, Raducanu was irresistible, her bold shot-making and ability to stretch a lead redolent of the fearless tennis she produced at Flushing Meadows. It will not have escaped the locker room’s notice that the best performances of Raducanu’s fledgling career have come at the game’s marquee events: Wimbledon, where she reached the third round on her debut as a wildcard; Flushing Meadows, where she came through qualifying to win the title without dropping a set; and now, facing a grand slam champion for the first time, Melbourne Park.
Yet there was always a sense that Stephens, a player of redoubtable pedigree who nonetheless remains prone to inexplicable dips in form and consistency, had more to give. So it proved, as the second act became a showcase for Raducanu’s defensive skills, another step on a learning curve that she seems to be travelling in reverse.
“When Sloane was fighting back in the second set, I definitely accepted that,” said Raducanu, who will face Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in round two. “I was almost expecting it, because she is a champion and you don’t just become one by rolling over.”
A double fault in the opening game of the second set offered a first hint of fallibility on Raducanu’s part. Stephens gleefully accepted the proffered gift. But having gained a belated foothold in the match, she relinquished almost immediately as Raducanu broke back to level at 2-2. The challenge for the American, who recognised the need to bring her power to bear against her young rival but was too out of touch to do so consistently, lay in balancing the risk-reward ratio. She eventually alighted on the solution of mixing venom with guile, slicing her backhand short and wide to pull Raducanu away from the middle of the court before drilling the ball into the space vacated by her opponent.
“I think it was her game plan to come out and be super aggressive, and she did that well,” said Stephens, who married the American footballer Jozy Altidore in the off-season and only decided to make the trip to Melbourne once it became clear she would not have to spend time in quarantine.
“Obviously, when you’re playing someone that’s playing like that, they always tend to settle a bit. So I just had to make sure I didn’t get too out of control, so I could get some games and then obviously get the second. I just tried to stay steady.”
The tone of the decider was set with Raducanu serving at 40-30 in the opening game. A Stephens approach shot unexpectedly crept over the net but the teenager, momentarily startled, managed to manufacture a reply before drilling a backhand pass for a winner. With fist clenched, she turned to her box, where her new coach Torben Beltz looked on approvingly. She was on her way.
Now Raducanu, who had never previously played a deciding set at a slam, displayed an ability to think on her feet that will serve her well as she charts a course through her maiden season on the tour. She peppered the Stephens backhand, limiting the American’s opportunities to unload off her more powerful forehand. She drew Stephens forward with short, angled slices of her own, forcing the 28-year-old to play more points at the net, where she rarely looked at ease. It was more than Stephens could deal with.
“I think 2022 is all about learning for me,” reflected Raducanu. “Being in those situations of, you know, winning a set and then having to fight in a decider is definitely just all just accumulating into a bank of experience that I can tap into later on down the line.”