“I don’t think I’ve fully processed it yet”: Emma Raducanu reflects after Roland Garros bagel defeat

Emma Raducanu lamented a tough first-round defeat at Roland Garros, after suffering a bagel in the first set of her loss against Argentine clay specialist Solana Sierra. The Argentine secured a 6-0, 7-6 victory in a rollercoaster match, in which Raducanu came close to turning the match around, but it was not enough for the comeback.

And Raducanu had a very tough start in the first round of the French Open, after conceding the first set in just 25 minutes and suffering a bagel against her. The world No. 37 only won 5 points on her serve throughout the first set (28%), made 15 unforced errors and had 0 winners.

Things changed a lot at the beginning of the second set, after another couple of consecutive breaks by Sierra. The Argentine was up 6-0, 4-1 in what was becoming a disastrous performance from Raducanu. Although the Brit came back from a double break down to take everything to a tie-break, it was not enough and Sierra took the victory 6-0, 7-6 in 1 hour and 46 minutes.

“I don’t think I’ve fully processed it yet, so it’s hard to speak about the match right now. But I have to at least take the fact that from 4-1 down, I came back and made it competitive in the second set,” the former US Open champion said in press conference. “In a way, I’m pretty disappointed. Obviously, I wanted to do better, but I guess that’s the only positive I can take from today.”

It has been a difficult few months for Raducanu, who has only played two clay tournaments and lost in both of her opening matches. After suffering an injury during the Sunshine Double back in March, Raducanu was out of competition for around two months, losing in the first round of Strasbourg upon her return a week ago. This time, the lack of match practice over the last months was noticeable, and Raducanu was eliminated early from the second Grand Slam of the year.

“I’ve been practising well, but it’s been five or six weeks after two months off. It was going to be a big ask,” the 23-year-old player said. “I really wanted to play Roland Garros, that was my decision, and I stand by it because I never want to miss a Grand Slam. I think I competed as well as I could in the second set with what I had today.”

Raducanu had been having a good start to the year, after returning to play a final again—the first since her US Open 2021 title—when she reached the Cluj-Napoca final. Despite the defeat against Sorana Cîrstea, the Brit had taken away positive feelings. However, since then she has only recorded one win and five defeats in her next five tournaments.

“I think I’ve just been struggling with a cough for the last few weeks, but otherwise my symptoms have been pretty good. It’s just a lingering cough. The clay irritates it a little bit, but overall, health-wise, I feel good.”

Raducanu has been struggling to collect ranking points over recent months and will drop a couple more positions in the rankings at the end of the tournament. For now, she sits at world No. 39 in the live rankings, although she could continue slipping in the coming days, with several players needing only one win to move ahead of Raducanu—such as Janice Tjen, Lois Boisson or Dayana Yastremska.

Raducanu will enter the grass swing in a couple of weeks looking to regain confidence on a surface that suits her playing style. Like most British players, the former top-10 player hopes that the tournaments she will play in the UK and the support of the home crowd will help her bounce back from an inconsistent spell following a recent coaching change, after bringing back Andrew Richardson to her team—the same coach who guided her to the US Open title in 2021 at just 18 years old, coming through qualifying.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on home soil,” she said in press conference. “Queen’s is always an amazing tournament, so I’m looking forward to starting there. After that, I don’t know yet—it depends how it goes.”

Raducanu will return to the courts at Queen’s—the tournament starting on June 8—and it will be her only warm-up event before Wimbledon. Back in 2025 she achieved solid results on grass, with a 5-3 record and a quarter-final appearance at Queen’s. She will also carry added pressure, with a significant number of ranking points at stake and her ranking under threat of continuing to drop if she does not correct her course quickly.