From the moment she speared an ace out wide on the first point of the match, Emma Raducanu’s first US Open victory since the 2021 final never looked in doubt.
With the 2025 US Open a little more than an hour old, Raducanu was into the second round after thrashing Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-1, 6-2. At 62 minutes, it was her joint-quickest tour-level win in a completed match.
The 22-year-old was wearing the same shade of red as in 2021, and this was a victory every bit as dominant as those which drove her towards that title.
Admittedly, the severity of the scoreline owed more to the hopelessness of Shibahara than brilliance from Raducanu, but the British No1 was utterly ruthless.
A routine victory, then, but nonetheless one of huge significance as it rubber-stamped Raducanu’s pre-tournament assertion that Flushing Meadows is her happy place once again. She lost in the first round in 2022 to Alize Cornet, a bag of nerves as defending champion, missed out with injury in 2023 and fell to a tearful defeat against Sofia Kenin last year.
Another opening-round defeat would have looked worryingly like a mental block was developing. But she is up and running at last, another step taken in what feels like Raducanu’s lifelong process of consigning the Fairytale of New York to the past.
Emma Raducanu produced a dominant display to comfortably beat Japan’s Ena Shibahara
This is Raducanu’s first win at the US Open since her historic tournament victory in 2021
This can be a happy hunting ground for Raducanu for many years to come
Because, if she can shed that weight of history, the US Open should be a happy Raducanu hunting ground for many years to come. The nippy, skiddy courts give her good value for her shots, meaning she can rely on the purity of her ballstriking without having to overhit.
She certainly did not have to overhit here, stroking the ball around and waiting for the double faults and unforced errors to flow from the Shibahara racket.
Two of those double faults came in the 27-year-old’s first service game, then a forehand was dragged horribly into the net to concede a break.
Shibahara, who is more known for her success on the doubles court, had heavy strapping around her elbow, so it is possible the three rounds won in qualifying had taken a toll.
The first set disappeared in 26 minutes; the second a little over half an hour and Raducanu awaits the winner of the match between Russian 24th seed Veronika Kudermetova and Indonesian qualifier Janice Tjen.
This was a first Grand Slam victory under the auspices of Spanish coach Francisco Roig, a member of Rafael Nadal’s team for every one of his 22 major titles.
It is too early to gauge improvements he has made to Raducanu’s game, but one thing that stood out was the clarity with which she played. In windy conditions, her gameplan of playing with lots of margin over the net and hitting centrally through the court to deny her opponent angles worked perfectly.
Under stop-gap coach Mark Petchey, there had been a focus on Raducanu bringing her forehand into play more, but in this match at least Roig had her relying more on her backhand – always her more reliable stroke.
If Raducanu is to progress further this fortnight she will have to step more outside her comfort zone, take greater risks, but for now this will do just fine.
