Ninth seed Elena Rybakina delivered a commanding performance to end Emma Raducanu’s US Open campaign, advancing to the fourth round for the first time with a 6-1, 6-2 victory on Friday.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion, who had defeated Raducanu in their only previous meeting in 2022, struck early in both sets and maintained her focus throughout, sealing the win in just 62 minutes.
“I’m really happy with the performance. It’s never easy to play against Emma,” Rybakina said. “The score doesn’t show it, but she’s a tough competitor. I’m pretty happy with the way I’m playing and I’m looking forward to the next match.”
Rybakina immediately imposed herself, breaking Raducanu’s serve in the opening game with a series of clean returns and consolidating behind her own powerful delivery. She quickly raced to a 3-0 lead, consistently pushing the Briton onto the back foot. Raducanu, who had held serve throughout her first two rounds, was repeatedly undone by errors and could not respond as Rybakina closed out the first set.
The second set followed a similar pattern. Raducanu lost her first service game to more unforced errors, allowing Rybakina to consolidate with a straightforward hold. Despite landing just 47% of her first serves, the Kazakh star faced little threat from Raducanu’s second deliveries.
Raducanu briefly rallied, saving two break points to lift the crowd, but Rybakina quickly regained control, dragging her across the baseline before finishing the point with an unreachable forehand winner. Another ace brought Rybakina within one point of victory, which she sealed as Raducanu sent a shot long.
The defeat ends Raducanu’s most encouraging US Open campaign since her shock title win in New York four years ago as a qualifier. Rybakina will next face either 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova or Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini.
“It’s true, in the past few years it’s not been easy at the US Open and I wasn’t successful,” Rybakina added. “I hope this year it will change. I’m really happy now that I’m getting through and hopefully I can go as far as possible.”