On learning that she would face Serena Williams in the opening round of the Cincinnati Open, Emma Raducanu described the chance to face the 23-time grand slam champion as a gift. It turned out to be precisely that, although not in the way she might have envisaged.
Beforehand, the much-hyped contest was romanticised as a battle of past and future, of imperious monarch and young pretender. Raducanu instead made it look like what it was: a 19-year-old up against a player more than twice her age; a meeting of the world No 10 and reigning US Open champion with an opponent who had played only three matches in 13 months, and who announced last week that her retirement is imminent. In every sense, it was too much ground for Williams to make up.
For all her understandable struggles since she returned from a year-long injury absence at Wimbledon, nothing can have prepared the American for this. Laboured in her movement, erratic off the ground and more vulnerable on her second serve than she has ever been, Williams slumped to a 6-4, 6-0 defeat before leaving the stadium with a smile and a wave. There was none of the ceremony that attended her defeat to Belinda Bencic in Toronto last week, where she performed a tearful on-court interview. The champagne that awaited at courtside went unopened, the chance to address the fans who had welcomed her with a rapturous ovation spurned. Williams, who also skipped her post-match press conference, was in no mood for talking.
Yet this was a performance that spoke volumes from Raducanu, who was composed, consistent and clinical as she produced arguably her finest tennis since last September, when she came through qualifying to win at Flushing Meadows without dropping a set. It is indicative of how well she handled the occasion, her celebrated opponent and her own game that Raducanu made just one unforced error in the entire match. Her nimble movement and dominance on serve, where she claimed three-quarters of the points behind both her first and second deliveries, stood in stark contrast to Williams, who won just two of her 16 second-serve points.
“I can’t believe I just played Serena Williams,” said Raducanu. “It’s something that I think I’m really fortunate to have been able to do, and for our careers to have crossed when there’s such a big gap. [After] watching her growing up it, was an amazing experience to just play her, and from the beginning to the end I was, maybe not calm, but I knew how important every single point was, because you let up a little bit and she’s going to be all over you. She’s just such a legend.”
It was an unusual occasion for Raducanu, who for once was neither the star attraction nor the player under the greatest pressure. The tension was nonetheless palpable in the tunnel in the moments before the players went on court. As Raducanu sneaked a peek at her opponent from a safe distance, it became clear that Williams has lost nothing of her formidable aura.
A flurry of early errors from the American did little to allay rumours that the controversial postponement of the match, which was originally scheduled for Monday night, was intended to allow her more time to recover from a knee problem. Williams, who wore a strip of support tape down her left leg, lost her opening service game to love and emitted a cry of frustration when her second double fault of the afternoon set Raducanu on her way to a second break in the fifth game. It was not what the people – whose number included Naomi Osaka, beaten in the first round by China’s Zhang Shuai, and Grigror Dimitrov – had come to see.
When the ball was in her strike zone, or she was able to land a first serve with the potency of old, Williams looked as dangerous as ever. Yet those moments were few and far between, and elicited a rapid response from Raducanu on the rare occasions they arose.
When a winning drop shot, something of a late addition to the Williams armoury, gave the veteran a glimmer of daylight on the return, Raducanu snuffed out the danger with intelligent, accurate serving, a pair of aces wide to the deuce court rekindling memories of her exploits at Flushing Meadows. When Williams overpowered her with some huge returning to break in the sixth game, and then held from 0-30 as she powered down two consecutive aces, Raducanu steadied the ship with a love hold. She refused to be overawed.
“I think that a big part of the match today was definitely the mental side, you know, to not be intimidated by all her achievements,” said Raducanu. “That was what I was focusing the most on, just being really present and thinking of my game, thinking of what I needed to do.”
Raducanu will need to repeat that level of focus in the next round, where she will face another multiple grand slam champion and former world No 1 in the shape of Victoria Azarenka.
As for Williams, she will head to New York at the end of the month for what will almost certainly be the final tournament of her illustrious career, hoping against hope that will have found the form and fitness to do herself proper justice by then.