By Tony Fairbairn
- Anastasia Potapova def Emma Raducanu [28] 7-6(3) 6-2
- Emma Raducanu took the positives from her defeat in the second round but also admits her game needs re-evaluating
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – Emma Raducanu is aiming to find her identity again as she suffered a second round exit at the Australian Open.
 |
|---|
It was another disappointing day in Melbourne as two more Brits exited the singles tournament at the Australian Open.
First it was Arthur Fery who exited the tournament as he lost in straight sets to Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
An amazing tournament was still produced by Fery who is up to a career high ranking of 145 in the live rankings after qualifying for his first Australian Open as well as knocking out 20th seed Flavio Cobolli.
The second defeat of the day saw British number one Emma Raducanu lose in straight sets to Anastasia Potapova.
There were high hopes for Raducanu that she could set up a third round showdown with top seed and multiple-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Those hopes got stronger after the first five games all went against the serve before Raducanu held to love to take a 4-2 lead in the opening set.
Some exquisite tennis was being played and Raducanu was on course to taking the opening set.
However, Raducanu was too passive and made some poor decisions as she was broken back when serving for the set.
Despite having break point in the next game there was no further breakthrough for Raducanu as the first set would be decided by a tiebreak.
It was a clean tiebreak from Potapova who was resilient and kept applying the pressure on Raducanu.
Seven of the ten points went Potapova’s way as she claimed the opening set in 59 minutes.
The start of the second set couldn’t have gone any worse for Raducanu who only won four points in the opening three games.
Trailing 3-0, Raducanu sought an immediate response and got one as she got one of the breaks back.
However, the momentum didn’t last long as Raducanu was immediately broken back and Potapova comfortably closed out the match to book her place in the third round.
After the match Raducanu failed to look on the negative side of things as she put her Australian Open exit into context.
“I don’t want to give myself too much of a hard time because I know my preparation going into this tournament,” Raducanu admitted to The Guardian.
“I have to leave with my head held high because of the matches I’ve had here. I didn’t even know at the beginning if I would be coming to Australia, so it’s a positive in that sense.”
 |
|---|
Raducanu aiming to find identity again after second round exit
It’s another first week exit for Raducanu at a Grand Slam although this one isn’t too unexpected given her preparation here.
A frustrating off-season has culminated in an early exit in Melbourne and a lack of momentum to start the season.
Despite the setbacks this week, Raducanu is determined to make the most out of the season and believes success will come later.
“The season is still quite long, so hopefully if I stay healthy, do the right things, then it will start falling into place,” Raducanu explained to The Guardian.
“If you would have told me I would have played, you know, four or five matches in Australia regardless of how they went, from a physical perspective, it would have been pretty surprising. With each one I did get better, except today, but having to learn through matches is something that’s really difficult and not something that I really want to be doing.
“But because it’s a grand slam, you feel like you don’t want to miss out. So I don’t regret the decision, because I got to come and play a slam here. Even if I wasn’t very ready, I had a good three weeks down under on and off the court.
“I just need to take it for what it is, be pragmatic, and go back and keep working.”
Now it’s time for Raducanu to see where her game is at with the next couple of months being a perfect time for that.
The British number one insists she needs to find her identity again as she is not playing how she would like to be playing at the moment.
“At the end of the day, I just want to hit the ball to the corners and hard,” Raducanu observed to The Guardian.
“I’m doing all this variety, and it’s not doing what I want it to do. I need to just work on playing in a way more similar to how I was playing when I was younger. I always just changed direction, took the ball early, and went for it.
“I think I do have the ability to do many things on the court, but I feel like as I’m learning all those skills, it’s like I need to stick to my guns a bit as well and work on that. For me, it’s pretty simple.”
Raducanu will hope to implement those changes when she plays the WTA 250 event in Cluj which starts on the week of the 2nd of February.
How to Watch/Follow Australian Open 2026
| Live Stream | Discovery+ Add-on via Amazon Prime
Sign up for 30 day free trial of Prime Video and a 7-day free trial of Discovery+ Player |
| Live Scores | Tennis Scores Powered By TNNSLIVE |
| Follow Britwatch - Sport in General, Brits in Particular! | |
|---|---|
| Soundcloud | |
| YouTube | |
| We may receive compensation for products purchased via affiliate links on this website | |