Emma Raducanu Races through, Daniil Medvedev Dumped out
US Open
August 25, 2025
Emma Raducanu didn’t want to be the first big name dumped out of the US Open.
That dubious honour fell to the erratic Russian Daniil Medvedev on a typically zany day at Flushing Meadows.
Emma Raducanu is a big draw at the US Open, having won it previously. And she will command huge attention at Wimbledon 2026 next summer too.
After her opening match in New York, she admitted: ‘When I saw the Sunday schedule I thought: “First day, first match at 11am. You don’t want to be out of the tournament by 12.30pm on a Sunday.”‘
That fear of failure led Raducanu to adopt a ruthless mindset against her little-known opponent, Ena Shibahara of Japan.
Emma romped through 6-1, 6-2 in just 62 minutes. It was the quickest Grand Slam main draw win of her career.
That match time might have been 60 minutes, had a photographer not tripped over advertising while rushing to his position early on.
The incident caused a delay on the Raduacnu serve. But she wasn’t in the mood to be distracted by anything.
She added: ‘Of course I’m very, very pleased to get my first victory here since winning it in 2021.’ Now she faces Janice Tjen on Wednesday – after a good long rest.
Emma Raducanu fans are dreaming of her winning a second Grand Slam at Wimbledon 2026 next summer.
But for now, everyone’s focus is on New York. And another photographer became the unwanted focus on the first day at Flushing Meadows.
Daniil Medvedev might have been knocked out even more quickly had a snapper not caused uproar on match point.
The photo-journalist effectively invaded the court to try to reach a long-lens position before it was too late.
But despite exploiting that chaos to win the third-set breaker and the fourth set too, Medvedev eventually tasted the fate that had seemed inevitable so much earlier.
Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi regained his composure to edge this eventful thriller 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 0-6, 6-4.
Novak Djokovic also calmed down after arguing with the umpire about a time violation. He soon cruised through 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 against American youngster Learner Tien.