Emma Raducanu speaks out on US Open frustrations and makes big promise

Emma Raducanu has admitted her frustrations at not being a seeded player at the US Open, though she conceded that she may be better off for it. The Brit has enjoyed an encouraging 2025 season and moved up to world No. 35 in the rankings before her first-round tie with qualifier Ena Shibahara.

The 2021 Flushing Meadows champion missed out on being seeded by just one place but is confident she can take on the top players in the sport. That positive mindset has grown after two gruelling matches against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, whom Raducanu took to the distance at Wimbledon and the Cincinnati Open before two defeats.

"I obviously wanted to be seeded here at the US Open," Raducanu told Sky Sports. "I think I was one spot out, maybe the highest-ranked unseeded player.

"Everything, in a way, I feel happens for a reason. I was seeded in Cincinnati, and I played Aryna third round, so it doesn't really matter.

"You can be a low seed, and you can be put with the No. 1 or 2 seeds. It is a complete luck of the draw.

"I know that with what I'm doing, I just need to focus on my own stuff, my own game, and then take it to whoever I'm playing as best as I can."

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Raducanu's former coach, Mark Petchey, believes that the 22-year-old can replicate her victory from four years ago. And the Brit is promising that her first title since that historic win in New York is not far away.

"Playing first match, first day, the very start of the tournament... I'm looking forward to it, Raducanu added.

"I'm ready. I've been practising well, and I think regardless of the result, I know that overall, I'm doing the right things more and more day to day.

"It will come together eventually. It might not be next week, but I know it's coming."

Raducanu could face Sabalenka in the quarter-finals, though the likes of Shibahara, Veronika Kudermetova, Elena Rybakina and Jasmine Paolini lie in wait before then.

But her recent clashes with the world No. 1 have only encouraged Raducanu's belief that she can return to the upper echelons of tennis.

"I definitely got closer the last time we played in Cincinnati," Raducanu said after losing a deciding tie-break last time out.

"I think it's really helped playing the No. 1 player in the world and pushing her, so it gives me confidence.

"But what also gives me confidence is the work I'm doing behind the scenes, and then to see that translate and reaffirm the work I'm doing is really comforting."