Billie Jean King says Emma Raducanu has reason to be optimistic about her 2025 form despite a heavy US Open defeat. Raducanu was beaten 6-1, 6-2 by former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the third round of the US Open, but she has shown more consistent form this season and her ranking has risen, currently sitting as the world No 34.

Raducanu is due back on tour with the British team for the Billie Jean King Cup quarter-final against Japan on September 18th. On Raducanu’s communication skills and profile, King observed: “I think it’s huge that you can speak the language of wherever you are.” She added: “Raducanu is very articulate as well, she’s very good at getting up and speaking, covering a lot of subjects. You can tell she thinks about a lot of things compared to a lot of the players.” King underlined Raducanu’s national commitment: “I think we’re really lucky to have her but she likes it, she likes playing for her country.” She concluded: “If I were her, I’d be pretty excited. She’s playing very well, and the main thing is she’s injury-free, her body’s healthy again.”

The British side is expected to include Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal, and Jodie Anna Burrage, led by captain Anne Keothavong. Japan will be led by four-time Grand Slam Naomi Osaka, with Moyuka Uchijima, Ena Shibahara, Eri Hozumi, and Shuko Aoyama completing their team.

After New York, Raducanu struck a measured tone about progress. “I think you take a few steps forward, one step back, but I think overall I’m working and building towards good things,” the world No 36 analysed. “I’m just enjoying my tennis, for the most part. In the big scheme of things I’m working towards playing better and being a better tennis player, more complete overall and looking forward to going back to Asia. “I’ve never really played an Asia swing, so I hope this year I’ll be able to.”

Many of Raducanu’s defeats this season have come against the sport’s elite, including close losses to Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon and in Cincinnati, and a defeat by fifth seed Anna Anisimova in Canada. Her loss to Rybakina, who is the current world No 9 and has been ranked as high as world No 3, was another meeting with a top opponent who produced a clinical display to reach the US Open fourth round. “Yeah, big time,” Raducanu responded, when asked if her opponents have had to up their game this year against her. “I think when the very top play against me, they have a point to prove that they’re at the top for a reason.

“Every time I’ve played one of them they’ve shown that. While I’m improving, doing better, gaining maybe some more respect, I think the top have definitely raised their game.

“But I’ll take that as a compliment that they’ve decided to really lock in against me, but at the same time it does show I have a lot more work to do.”

Mats Wilander has pointed to Carlos Alcaraz as the player to beat at this year’s US Open, citing the Spaniard’s form through three rounds and a level of focus that has impressed the former world No 1. “Alcaraz is playing extremely well,” said Wilander. “He’s unbelievably focused, the movement is just so good it seems impossible to hit the ball past him. “His forehand, he said himself is not perfect, to me it looks pretty perfect, and he is serving well. “Early in the tournament, for once, he looks like the man to beat.”

Alcaraz reached the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 win over Lucas Darderi, having not dropped a set in his prior matches. He entered the tournament having won 30 of his last 31 matches, his only recent loss coming to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final.

Sinner, the defending champion, remains a favourite for many and, like Alcaraz, had not dropped a set at this stage of the event.

Alcaraz will next meet world No 82 Arthur Rinderknech, who recovered from a set down to Benjamin Bonzi. Earlier in the tournament Rinderknech had survived a five-set match with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The world No 2 has beaten Rinderknech on three occasions, two of those matches going the distance. Their closest meeting finished 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(3) at Queen’s Club in 2023, a result that helped propel Alcaraz to his first Wimbledon title.

“Rinderknech has a big serve and big game,” analysed the Swede. “He can rush Alcaraz, maybe take the second serve return and come to the net, maybe hit the ball really hard down the middle and come to the net, do something that will surprise Alcaraz. “I think he has a chance to at least win a set.”

Alcaraz has a history of strong results at the US Open, reaching the quarter-finals on his first appearance at 18 and winning the title in 2022, but his straight-set defeat last year to Botic Van de Zandschulp has remained a point of reference. “I’m just trying not to do the same things as last year,” Alcaraz analysed. “Trying to improve and do the things much better. Every time that I step on the court, I’m just locked in from the first point until the last one. “I’m taking last year as motivation coming into this year, be more hungry, ambitious to do great things here. “This is a place that I love playing. The energy is crazy, so I’m just trying to feel the love and the energy from the people much more and playing as much matches as I can, that motivates me.”

On Rinderknech, Alcaraz added: “He’s really difficult to play against, really aggressive, big serve, trying to go to the net. “So it’s going to be really difficult, but as I said, I’m just trying to be focused on myself, that I’m playing great tennis, and I’m feeling really comfortable physically, mentally, and just feeling the ball really well. “I will try to think just about my goals, about myself, and let’s see, but it’s going to be a really interesting one.”

Ben Shelton arrived at the 2025 US Open among the contenders but was forced to leave his third-round encounter with Adrian Mannarino because of a left shoulder problem, ultimately retiring after Mannarino took the fourth set, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, ret. The No. 6 seed showed visible pain from the start of the fourth set and, in his first-ever mid-match retirement, left the court uncertain of what had caused the injury or how long recovery might take.

Former Australian Open semifinalist Chanda Rubin said, “It was tough to watch, and you just hope it’s not as serious as it looked in the moment. There’s a lot of things that could go wrong with the shoulder. It could be a really bad impingement; that would be preferable. It could be torn, but maybe not a bad tear, or it could be something that keeps him out for quite a while and even something that could require surgery.

“So hopefully, he can find out that information and he can use it to get back healthy, first and foremost. He’s got the experience of his dad, and we saw Bryan telling him to call it and just get off the court to figure out what this is to get ahead of it. I think that was a smart decision and they’re going to have to make a lot of smart decisions going forward.”

Shelton made his major breakthrough at this event in 2023, upsetting higher-ranked Americans Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal, where he pushed eventual champion Novak Djokovic tough over three sets. He entered this fortnight fresh from his first Masters 1000 title earlier this month in Toronto and had been projected to meet former champion Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.

1998 US Open champion Lindsay Davenport said, “As an American player, this is the tournament you grow up dreaming about trying to win. This is the one that most of us, as junior players, this is the first one we got to step foot in for the majors. You could just see how crushed he was. He has hopes of winning this tournament. He’s been close. He built so much momentum this summer to try and make a run here. He wanted to play Alcaraz in the quarters and see what would happen. So, you could see the heartbreak on him.

“He’ll be back before we know it, but pretty crushing as an American. The first real time you think you have a chance to win here, and then injury takes you out? That’s hard to swallow.”

Fellow former world No. 1 Jim Courier offered a cautious positive note: “That’s the most important shot for him overall, so that doesn’t seem to be troubled by whatever this is. So, that’s my silver lining I’m trying to take from it. I’m sure they’ll be getting scans in New York City today or sometime soon to figure out what they need to do to go forward.”