Elena Rybakina may have just delivered her best performance of the year after playing astonishingly in a 6-1 6-2 win over Emma Raducanu in the US Open third round.
What was expected to be one of the most entertaining matches of the third round action at Flushing Meadows quickly turned into a one-sided affair after Rybakina claimed breaks in the second and sixth games to easily win the opener. During the set, the No. 9 seed impressively won 82 percent of her first serve points, fired 11 winners, and earned four break points and realized two, all while not facing a single break point.
Rybakina continued with her high-level tennis in the second set, taking Raducanu's serve in the first and seventh games before serving out for the match in the eighth game. The 2022 Wimbledon champion, who was basically untouchable on her serve, won 90 percent of her first serve points in the end, and didn't allow her rival a single break point in just over an hour of play.
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Rybakina now owns a 2-0 head-to-head against Raducanu - she also won their 2022 Sydney meeting 6-0 6-1. The ninth-seeded Kazakh now awaits the winner of the match between Jasmine Paolini and Marketa Vondrousova in the US Open round-of-16.
Raducanu didn't accomplish her goal at the US Open
Before the Rybakina match, the 2021 US Open champion said her goal wasn't to win this year's tournament, but to play against the best and be competitive.
Of course, if Im going to want to win a grand slam, you have to beat all the players in the draw, but I dont think right now thats my goal or my objective. Im not trying to win the tournament, to be honest... I need to play these top girls and I think a win against one of them gives you a lot of confidence in general, but I know I just need to keep doing the right things day to day and the results I cant really control. But I think Im just working towards getting closer and closer to the top ones," the Briton said before the match.
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Considering how she performed against Rybakina, there is no doubt that Raducanu won't be happy about it at all.
