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.”

Daria Abramowicz has addressed criticism of her relationship with Iga Swiatek after questions were raised about professional boundaries. The psychologist has worked with Swiatek since February 2019, when the player was 17 and ranked just inside the top 150 on the WTA Tour.

Abramowicz has been credited with helping Swiatek develop into a leading player of her generation. The 24-year-old has won 24 titles, including six Grand Slams, and has spent 125 weeks at world No 1. Swiatek has publicly acknowledged Abramowicz’s influence before, saying the psychologist made her “smarter” and boosted her confidence during her maiden major run at the 2020 French Open.

Their partnership came under scrutiny earlier this year amid a difficult run of form for Swiatek and criticism of on-court behaviour. During the Indian Wells semi-final loss to Mirra Andreeva in March, Swiatek appeared to hit a ball toward her team, close to a ball boy, while Abramowicz was observed shouting from the stands.

A clinical voice raised concerns about the pair’s professional distance. “If we were to look at this relationship only and exclusively from the point of view of strictly psychological workshop, then it is indeed a disturbed relationship, in which certain boundaries of professional distance between the psychologist and the client are crossed,” Nowicki told Interia Sport. “Unfortunately, most errors in perception occur when emotions are aroused. Regardless of whether these are positive or negative emotions, then we make errors in the accuracy of observation.”

Swiatek defended her team ahead of the French Open. “Daria is a constant source of support for me, someone I trust,” she said. “In fact, I trust my entire team, and I want people around to know that.

“This is my team – I decide who’s in it. The recent media pressure doesn’t create space for calm and focused work. On the contrary it creates additional, unnecessary stress.”

In a longer interview on the Polish podcast Break Point, Abramowicz explained her approach and the choices she makes at the athlete’s request. Furjan asked whether she had considered sitting separately from Swiatek’s coaches: “Didn’t you ever want to move a little away from [Wim] Fissette or [Tomasz] Wiktorowski, to the third or fourth row? Because in my opinion, that could resolve these tensions.”

Abramowicz replied: “But I do what is expected of me, what the athlete I work with asks me to do. And let’s move from that.

“If a player wants to have her own team, and if she wants us to, for example, not smile in the box, or cheer after every point, but rather look focused and be very meticulous, for example, or if she said before the match, ‘I need a lot of energy from you today, so I need a lot of “jazda” (a Polish word meaning let’s go), and so on, then we’ll do it.

“And of course, I talked to Iga about it. Of course I do: ‘Do you want us to make any changes? Or maybe I shouldn’t, for example, do you want me to skip a trip?’ And I repeat again: I do what the athlete expects of me.”

Novak Djokovic moved into the fourth round of the US Open with a four-set victory over world No 35 Cameron Norrie, winning 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-3. The win was his 192nd victory at hard-court Grand Slams, a record, and included 18 aces, tying his own US Open mark.

The result continued a remarkably consistent season for the 38-year-old, who has reached the semi-final at the other three Grand Slams this year. Djokovic at times did not look entirely comfortable, taking an off-court medical timeout for an apparent back issue during the match.

Asked about retirement, Djokovic was candid in his response. He said: “I think I was quite honest in the press conference after the Wimbledon semifinals, I gave some clues about what’s on my mind,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion admitted, when asked if he is thinking about retirement.

“I mean, of course, now I ask myself more questions than ever about how long I want to continue at this level and how I want to approach my schedule to extend my career because I really want to keep playing.

“I still enjoy competing; I can be very demanding of myself and my team, I know that, but I still feel that I have game left, you know, to play at the highest level.

“As I’ve said several times, as long as I feel that level is still alive, still present, I feel like I want to move forward. I want to keep pushing to see if I can have another opportunity in a Grand Slam or any major tournament.

“And also enjoy the support and affection I have received in recent years, which has been incredible wherever I have gone, and I really enjoy that feeling.

“There are other reasons and motivations why I keep playing.

“But yes, there is also an internal debate within me, but I try to focus my thoughts and attention on this very present moment of what needs to be done, so I keep competing, and I might get a little more philosophical when the tournament ends, but I will try to focus on the next challenge here”.

The back discomfort, while appearing minor in New York, is part of a season in which Djokovic has battled a series of physical problems. At Wimbledon he suffered a hip injury after slipping in his quarter-final and then struggled against Jannik Sinner. In January he tore his hamstring against Carlos Alcaraz and later retired against Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open semi-finals.

When questioned specifically about his back he said: “Honestly, I don’t think I can do much more than what I’m doing know,” and highlighted the reality of biological age and wear and tear. Djokovic will next face Jan-Lennard Struff in the last 16.