US Open 2022: How Alizé Cornet defeated Emma Raducanu

By On The Line Tennis · Tactical & Match Analysis · Original Article ↗

Twelve months ago, Emma Raducanu defeated Leylah Fernandez to win the US Open title becoming the first qualifier ever to win a Grand Slam.

This year, Raducanu was defeated by Alizé Cornet in the first-round.

What's changed (if anything) from last year?

I've quickly analysed how Emma was defeated so early in the tournament.

Enjoy! 🎾

How Alizé Cornet defeated Emma Raducanu

It was a dangerous draw from the word go.

Alizé Cornet had already defeated Halep at the Australian Open, Ostapenko at the French Open and Swiatek at Wimbledon this year. Cornet was known for killing giants at the tour's biggest events and defeating the defending champ at the US Open would be a brilliant scalp to add to her list.

It wasn't just Cornet's head-hunting abilities that earned her the win though. There were factors at play on both sides of the net.

Mourning The 2021 Forehand

Obviously Emma is/has been playing worse than the tennis she brought to the US Open last year but how does that actually translate to her game?

At last year's US Open, statistically Raducanu excelled on first-serve return compared to her peers. She was able to use impeccable timing to redirect the pace of first-serves, hurtling her returns down the middle of the court and setting her up for a brutal follow-up.

*Return + 1 greatness. The backhand return is as deep as you like setting up a powerful forehand winner.*

I'm here to argue Raducanu's returning wasn't entirely different against Cornet. She was still able to time the ball sending it with pace and depth frequently down the middle of the court. There are two reasons she couldn't capitalise on those returns as easily however:

Raducanu's following forehand let her down. It's the shot that's suffered the most over the past 12 months as she's never seemed to find the consistent pace she could find at the 2021 US Open. Mark Petchey noted Raducanu's team changed to a natural gut bed at some point this year to give her some of that confidence back but it's resulted in the ball flying on her more often - ironically this has resulted in Raducanu decelerating on this shot more than she used to.
Like her compatriot Caro Garcia, Cornet is great at countering depth with her own depth, her hand skills giving her the ability to neutralise Raducanu's greatest weapon from last year.

Raducanu (bottom) hits a ferocious return on her forehand, almost benefitting from the pace on the first-serve, but Cornet (top) massages it back into play. The following forehand from Raducanu is lacklustre and allows Cornet to work her way into the point.

A few forehand stats for you just to hammer the point home.

Raducanu hit 769 forehands in her main draw matches last year. 17% of the time she hit a winner or forced an error on this shot. Against Cornet, she hit 133 forehands but could only hit a winner or force an error 7% of the time.
Raducanu won 54% (!) of her forehand return points in her main draw matches last year. Against Cornet, she won just 22% of her forehand return points.

It's the shot that has really waned over the last few months, forcing her to rely on her backhand. Unfortunately this isn't a strength you'd want to lean on against Cornet.

Cornet Forcing Backhand Dynamics

Cornet's favourite shot is her backhand. Trading cross-court with the Frenchwoman puts the pressure on to make the first move...

Not just cross-court actually - Cornet played down the middle but enough to Raducanu's left-hand side to force her to play a backhand. So despite arguably playing into Raducanu's strength, Cornet took away the angle on this shot, forcing one player to nearly go inside-out with their backhand - Cornet's ability to place the ball on this wing allowed her to do this far more frequently than Raducanu.

This GIF highlights a couple of things. The first is that Raducanu (top) is far more willing to go for a backhand on her +1 shot than her forehand removing an advantage she had last year. Second is that when both players are locked in a backhand cross-court battle, Raducanu was generally the first to blink.

*Cornet (bottom) was the more able of the two players to change direction on her backhand from this position, forcing the error from Raducanu (top) here on set point.*

Without the abilities to capitalise on her serves using her forehand and to consistently hurt Cornet in an extended rally, Raducanu wound up getting broken seven times - this is equal to the number of times she was broken throughout the main draw of her title run last year!

Clean Slate

The pressure is finally off of Raducanu as she moves passed the idea of defending her run from last year.

I mean, in a way happy because it's a clean slate... I'm going to drop down the rankings. Climb my way back up. In a way the target will be off my back slightly... I just have another chance to claw my way back up there. I've been doing some really good work in the last six weeks especially.

Expectation and the pace of the tour's shots seems to have translated to a loss in forehand speed over the last 52 weeks. Cornet gave Raducanu more chances to hit big than most opponents she's played this year but her confidence on this wing certainly seemed to have wilted when we look at how she was striking it last year.

At the same time, Raducanu still came to the court in New York blasting returns down the middle of the court - she just came up against an opponent that could neutralise that power. There is a chance she could have put together a few wins with a kinder draw but she was never repeating last year's insanity in this sort of form.

I think it genuinely will help to start afresh. She referred to good work over the last six weeks - if there is a person that can rebuild Raducanu's forehand from the ground up, Dmitry Tursunov is probably the coach for the job (previously worked Sabalenka and Kontaveit).

Working with him will hopefully be an incredibly fruitful partnership. Whatever happens though, she can walk away from New York with her head held high...

I'll repeat what I said last year.

I have my fingers crossed for future success of course but Emma Raducanu, you do you. If you don’t win another Grand Slam, that’s fine - after stunning the world over the last month, you’ve got nothing else to prove.