Tearful Emma Raducanu reflects on French Open nightmare
By Eleanor Crooks, Press Association Tennis Correspondent, Paris
An emotional Emma Raducanu was at a loss to explain her horror start at the French Open as she crashed to a first opening-round loss in Paris.
The British number one failed to win a game in a one-sided opening set against Argentina’s Solana Sierra, hitting zero winners and making 15 unforced errors.
Raducanu looked like she could be heading for one of the worst defeats of her career when she trailed 4-1 in the second set but she found a belated foothold, fighting back to force a tie-break before losing 6-0 7-6 (4).
Defeat for Emma Raducanu at @rolandgarros
Solana Sierra takes their match 6-0, 7-6 pic.twitter.com/jaQ74vRJ4F— LTA (@the_LTA) May 24, 2026
“It was difficult,” said the 23-year-old, who made 42 unforced errors in total. “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 a set and 4-1 down, I came back and made it competitive in the second set. I’m pretty disappointed. Obviously I wanted to do better.
“I went on the court, I felt like the conditions were extremely lively and I felt like I wasn’t able to trust my shots and didn’t feel like I had control over the ball.
“I think probably just a bit light on matches, a bit light on confidence coming into the tournament.
“The first set happened super quickly, and it’s not a nice feeling when the points and the games are going very, very fast. I’m glad at least in the second set I was able to get a few games on the board.”
Raducanu had looked eager and confident in practice having reunited with US Open-winning coach Andrew Richardson earlier this week but she arrived in Paris having played only one match in two-and-a-half months after struggling with a post-viral illness.
She is still bothered by a lingering cough that was aggravated by the clay blown up off the court, and it will clearly take time for Raducanu to find a groove again after this latest break from the tour.
The weight of everything she has been through since her life-changing win in New York in 2021 has taken a toll, and tears welled up in her eyes when she was asked how she had kept picking herself back up.
“It’s very difficult,” she said. “I think you need a lot of resilience. I think I’m trying my best each day, and I think that’s all I can ask of myself.”
Raducanu will now turn her attention to the grass-court season, where she has traditionally performed strongly, and the build-up to the HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club starting on June 8.
But she insisted she did not regret coming back for the end of the clay season, saying: “In hindsight, after the two matches I’ve played, it could have been nice to have saved yourself the match like today.
“I think it will help me. I think I haven’t played matches, and it’s obviously very difficult coming in not having had any matches towards the back end of the clay season and these girls having tournament after tournament of confidence and wins. So I think that was pretty tricky for me.
“I didn’t necessarily do as well as I’d like to this year but I think the only way to face and improve how I’m feeling is to go through the tough parts, to go through the pain of it, and hopefully come out on the other side better and stronger.”
