“I think it's going to be nice once the US Open is finished and I can carry on from there, start again”

Emma Raducanu is set to make her National Bank Open debut on Monday when she takes on Camila Giorgi in the first round in her birthplace of Toronto.

The Brit rose to fame when she clinched the US Open title last year as a qualifier. She has, however, struggled to make an impact on the tennis circuit since. She has won just 11 matches out of the 24 she has contested this year and faced early exits in all three Grand Slams of the year, not going past the second round in any of them.

Speaking at a press conference, the World No. 10 acknowledged the tough season she has had so far.

“It has been a tough year. I've definitely gone through and experienced a lot of challenges. To be fair, I've learned a lot from all of it,” she stated.

While the 19-year-old remains very satisfied with her New York Grand Slam victory last year, she is also looking forward to starting afresh once this year’s edition gets over.

“To have success at a young age, obviously you have to be really grateful because I'm doing what I love, but also I've reached success way earlier than I ever really would have thought I did. So I'm pretty proud of myself in that way,” she said.

“I think it's going to be nice once the US Open is finished and [I can] carry on from there. Start again. I think it will be nice to take all of the lessons from the last year and just [have] a clean slate,” she added.

“If my ranking plummets to like 1000 or whatever, then I don't care" - Emma Raducanu on dealing with pressure ahead of US Open title defense

Emma Raducanu in action at the Citi Open

Owing to her being the defending champion, Emma Raducanu will be defending 2,000 points at the US Open this year. That, combined with her poor season, puts her in a spot of bother heading into the year’s final Grand Slam.

While the Brit admitted that it was impossible to ignore the weight of expectations on her, she is not going to let the pressure get to her.

“I think that no matter what I said, I probably did have, you know, certain expectations of myself that were probably a bit twisted. And now I genuinely just accept it,” Emma Raducanu said, speaking at a press conference.

“Okay, it's not going to be pretty necessarily or easy, but I'm like 100% okay for starting over, to be honest. Like if my ranking plummets to like 1000 or whatever, then I don't care.”