US Open 2022: Raducanu drawn in heavy-weight quarter for title defence, in half topped by No1 Swiatek

Six-time champion Serena Williams prepares for fond farewell on home stage—23 years after first Major victory

Friday 26 August 2022, 14:25 UK

Emma Raducanu (Photo: IMG / Champions Tennis)

It is the last Major of the year, and the culmination of a long, hot and fascinating sweep of hard-court tournaments across North America, from San Jose to Washington, Cincinnati and Toronto.

The US Open Series has seen the resurgence of one of the tour’s most popular and enduring players, Simona Halep, a former No1 and multiple Major and 1000 champion, ranked 26 at Indian Wells, and now back to No7 after claiming the Toronto 1000 title. Her draw in New York looks smooth enough—until the fourth round where she could encounter one of two American seeds, Madison Keys or Coco Gauff.

Caroline Garcia, who rose to No4 after a stunning 2017/18 run, also regained her winning style to claim the Cincinnati title, and jumped from 35 in the ranks to 17, and a seeding in New York. There, she has fallen into Halep’s quarter, but with former teenage champion Bianca Andreescu or Toronto runner-up, No15 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia possible opponents in the third round—and No3 seed Maria Sakkari in the fourth.

Iga Swiatek, who dominated most of the first half of the season, both on hard courts and clay—including titles in Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Roland Garros—got a couple of good wins in the second American 1000 double-header, but has yet to reassert her pre-Wimbledon dominance.

New York will watch and wait to see if she can negotiate her tough section to reach her first quarter-final. But the top quarter has more former Major champions than any other, including the 2017 winner of the US Open, Sloane Stephens, unseeded, and a possible opponent in the second round. Their recent Cincinnati contest was a tough contest.

Raducanu: defending champion

Plenty of attention will certainly be on defending champion Emma Raducanu, still a teenager, and back where she set a first-ever record last year: coming through three rounds of qualifying and the main draw to win on her first visit to the US Open. It was, and remains, a lot to live up to, but steadily this summer, she has put together the kind of wins that will remind fellow competitors how dangerous her free-flowing game can be.

Not that the draw has been very kind to her: first Alize Cornet, ranked in the 30s and playing a record 63rd straight Major, with two-time former champion Naomi Osaka lined up for the third round—though Osaka has struggled with form this season, and faces No19 seed Danielle Collins, who reached her first Major final in Australia this year, in her opener.

Deeper into Raducanu’s quarter are Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, or No6 seed and former semi-finalist, Aryna Sabalenka, then either No4 seed Paula Badosa, former runner-up Karolina Piskova, or three-time US runner-up Victoria Azarenka.

Serena Williams: counting down the days

But while all these players will garner headlines in the coming fortnight, none will match Serena Williams, who is expected to retire after the tournament where she launched her spectacular tennis career, as a teenager, with victory in 1999. She went on to win six times in New York, and has stacked up 23 Majors in total. But since her last, in 2017—pregnant with her daughter—she has reached four Major finals, two further semis, but the elusive 24th has resisted her efforts.

She revealed ahead of the US Open series, where she returned after more than year away following injury at Wimbledon in 2021, that she intended to move on to other new projects and, if possible, have another child. And with her 41st birthday on the horizon, something has, after 24 years on the tour, had to give.

Whether her campaign is long or short—and she has drawn the second seed Anett Kontaveit for her second match, with last year’s runner-up Leylah Fernandez, who is less than half her age, possible in the quarters—Williams’s every shot will be followed to the bitter end.