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Not very often does the defending champion at the US Open stumble in the first round. But that's exactly what happened on Tuesday, as last year's surprise winner Emma Raducanu won just six games in a lopsided opening-round defeat.
It has been a difficult year for the teenager after her breakthrough triumph in New York last year. Raducanu shot to overnight superstardom after her fairy-tale triumph in 2021, becoming the first qualifier - male or female - to win a Major in the Open Era.
A year later, though, Raducanu bit the dust in the first round against Alize Cornet - who has beaten a few Major winners in her last few Grand Slam appearances.
On that note, here's a look at the three times the defending ladies singles winner at Flushing Meadows lost in the first round:
#3. Emma Raducanu loses to Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-3 (2022)
Emma Raducanu entered New York with a modest 13-15 record, having not reached a semifinal all season.
Her form on the North American hardcourts was better - winning four of her seven matches, including victories over Major winners Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka. Nevertheless, Raducanu didn't seem to feel the pressure to defend her title at Flushing Meadows, telling reporters on tournament eve:
“I think you guys are thinking probably more about pressure and ranking than me. I think defending a title is just something that the press makes up. I’m just taking it one match at a time."
However, she was found wanting against Alize Cornet in the first round. Three breaks of serve saw the Frenchwoman draw first blood. The Brit showed signs of life in the second, leading 3-1, but Cornet reeled off the last five games to send her tumbling out of the tournament.
In the process, Raducanu became only the third reigning US Open winner to fall in the first round.
Her early defeat means Raducanu will slip out of the top 75 of the singles rankings. If Harriet Dart wins her second-round match, Raducanu will also cease to be the British No. 1.
The win was Cornet's fifth against a Slam winner this year, following wins against Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep (Australian Open), Jelena Ostapenko (French Open), and Iga Swiatek (Wimbledon).
#2. Angelique Kerber loses to Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-1 (2017)
Angelique Kerber became only the second defending US Open women's singles champion to lose in the first round when she fell to a 19-year-old Naomi Osaka in 2017.
A year after reigning supreme in New York, the left-hander was a pale shadow of her former self, winning only four games all match, as Osaka pulled off one of the biggest wins of her career.
The German struggled big time on serve under a new roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Osaka unleashed as many as 22 winners and served huge to send Kerber packing in just over an hour.
Osaka fell in the third round to Kaia Kanepi but would later go on to win two titles at Flushing Meadows.
#1. Svetlana Kuznetsova loses to Ekaterina Bychkova 6-3, 6-2 (2005)
Svetlana Kuznetsova was the undisputed queen of New York in 2004, but a year later, her reign came to a shuddering halt.
The Russian won just five games against compatriot Ekaterina Bychkova in the first round of the 2005 US Open, creating history of the unwanted kind. Kuznetsova became the first ladies' singles winner at the US Open in the Open Era to stumble in the opening hurdle.
Before the Russian, only three defending Grand Slam champions in the Open Era - Steffi Graf (1994 Wimbledon), Jeniffer Capriati (2003 Australian Open) and Anastasia Myskina (2005 Roland Garros) - had lost in the first round.
Kuznetsova said after her defeat:
""I know how you feel when you don't have any gas and you can't go anymore. I think it's something else. I have to find out what that is. It just takes a while to learn it. It takes a while to play with pressure."
The Russian would go on to win her second Major title at Roland Garros in 2009.
Also Checkout:- US Open 2022 Results
