Emma Raducanu is thrashed by Iga Swiatek AGAIN - as British No 2 wins just three games against the four-time French Open champion
After a mauling in Melbourne came a pasting in Paris, as Emma Raducanu was knocked out by Iga Swiatek for the second Grand Slam in a row.
The best that could be said about this 6-1, 6-2 defeat in the second round of Roland Garros was it was better than the 6-1, 6-0 rout at the Australian Open. It is five defeats from five for Raducanu against the Pole, and she is yet to win a set.
In the build up to this contest, Raducanu had talked of bridging the gap between herself and the top players. Well Emma, in this matchup at least, you're gonna need a bigger bridge.
Raducanu simply does not have the weight of shot to hang with Swiatek. The British No 2 is a lovely clean striker of a ball, and she can deliver the finishing blow once a point has been constructed, but Swiatek does not allow her that luxury.
Within a few balls of the rally Raducanu was rocked on to the back foot, and once Swiatek gets you there the only question is whether the job will be finished by forehand or backhand.
And the defending champion did miss a few more of those than in previous years. She is as vulnerable here as she has ever been, having not won a title on the tour since her fourth here last year.
Once apparently unbeatable, Swiatek is eminently beatable now. But to beat her you have to rush her; go hard and straight into a forehand wing which can crack under pressure. She has lost this year to big hitters like Madison Keys (Australian Open), Danielle Collins (Rome) and Jelena Ostapenko (Doha and Stuttgart).
Raducanu's coach Mark Petchey is working for TNT Sports and on Wednesday morning talked of some of the adjustments they have made. Her strings are different and they have added some weight to the racket frame; it will take more than a couple of pounds of lead tape to give her the power to trouble Swiatek, however.
Petchey was on TV duty for Raducanu's first-round win against Xinyu Wang. He was on court for this one though, hurrying in wearing the crisp blue shirt and suit trousers of his day job.
If this matchup crops up again in his tenure, it is not easy to see how he and Raducanu can go about making inroads.
If she cannot outhit Swiatek, Raducanu could at least have tried to play with more variety. She hit one drop shot in the net early on then abandoned the tactic. She has one of the better slice backhands on tour and could have gone to that shot as a more proactive option, rather than a last resort in extremis.
As for Swiatek, she is building into the tournament nicely. The nadir of her recent loss of form was a third-round loss to Danielle Collins in Rome, and after that match she said of Roland Garros: 'It would be stupid to expect a lot since I'm not able to play my game. I'll just try to regroup and go day by day.'
Day by day she is going and all looks well so far but it will take a less pliant opponent than Raducanu to truly test her. The spectre of her nemesis Ostapenko – who leads the head to head 6-0 – lurks in the fourth round.
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