Originally Posted by
Elwood Blues
Sakkari, if I recall rightly, had Raducanu in trouble early on and had 7 break points in the early service games. Once Raducanu had her measure however, there was really only one player in it until the last few games. I am glad Sakkari did have revival because it gave Raducanu the chance to show that even when things start to go the other players way she can cope with it.
Of course, she was helped by the fact that Sakkari made a lot of unforced errors, as did her previous three opponents. But as one of the experts said last night, a lot of these errors have been because she puts their whole game under stress with the way she pressurises them. People are already saying that she is the best returner of serve at the top level!
Greg Rusedski said he had never seen anyone like her, with the possible exception of Rafael Nadal. Annabel Croft agreed with him.
Like me. you are a keen cricket follower and no doubt have heard commentators say that great players have so much time to play the ball or that their test match averages are often better than their county averages.
Raducanu seems to have time and seems (according to Martins Navratilova) to anticipate where to position herself on the court.
In her last tournament before the US Open she lost in three sets in the final to the then world no 78 and beat the world number 100 in three sets in the semi final, in the two matches she lost 27 games
In her last four matches in the US Open she has beaten(thrashed??) the numbers 41,43 ,12 and 18 in the world and lost a total of
16 games! In fact she is now higher in the rankings than the first two of those.
It would have nice if she had had some tougher games like her opponent Leylah Fernandez has. But you can only beat what is in front of you
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