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Raducanu vs Rybakina: serve holds the key as third round looms at US Open

Raducanu returns to Louis Armstrong to face No 9 Rybakina; serve accuracy will decide the match. now

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Emma Raducanu returns to Louis Armstrong Stadium and to the same time slot for Friday’s US Open third-round meeting with No 9 seed Elena Rybakina. An LTA-qualified coach, Kevin Palmer, analysed the contest and highlighted the elements likely to determine the outcome.

Raducanu’s serve was the standout feature of her opening two rounds. Against Tjen she hit 79 per-cent of her first serves in and the combination of potency and placement has given her a tangible edge. The serve has been a recurring weakness since her US Open victory four years ago, with opponents routinely targeting her second delivery. She made technical changes when Mark Petchey joined as a part-time coach at the Miami Open in March and, with new coach Francisco Roig, those adjustments now appear more pronounced.

“I thought that I served very well, and yeah, I put quite a few aces on the board today,” said Raducanu as she reflected on her serving success against Tjen. “It always helps me when I’m serving well. It just kind of seeps into the rest of my game.

“I have been practicing a lot. After my last match, I went onto the courts for another hour, and then two hours the first day off and just an hour yesterday.

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If Raducanu can keep her first-serve percentage above 75 per-cent she will be in a position to hold more reliably and to attack Rybakina’s second serve. Rybakina’s own serving numbers in her previous match were below her best: a 53 per-cent first-serve rate and only 44 per-cent of second-serve points won. Those figures present a clear target for Raducanu.

Rybakina’s strength lies in heavy groundstrokes that push opponents onto the back foot. The former Wimbledon champion can dominate rallies from the rear of the court and, when she is in control, “take the racket out of their hand.” To blunt that threat Raducanu will need to deploy variety and move Rybakina off her preferred patterns.

The match is finely balanced. Raducanu’s improved fitness and confidence make this too close to call. If her serve is firing she has the chance to inflict Rybakina’s first major scalp since her own landmark triumph four years ago. Conversely, Rybakina remains favourite but is vulnerable when removed from her comfort zone; if Raducanu can do that she can reach the last 16 in New York.

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ATP French Open Grand Slam

Auger-Aliassime Reaches Career-High No. 4 After Breakthrough at Roland Garros

Auger-Aliassime rises to No. 4 after best Roland Garros run, tying second-highest Canadian rank. Now

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Felix Auger-Aliassime moved to a career-high No. 4 in the ATP rankings following his deepest run at Roland Garros, where the 25-year-old reached the quarterfinals for the first time before losing to eventual finalist Flavio Cobolli. The result completed a personal Grand Slam milestone: having previously reached the quarterfinals or better at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, he became the first Canadian man to reach the quarterfinals or better at all four majors in his career.

The rise from No. 6 to No. 4 surpasses his prior best of No. 5 and places him tied for the second-highest-ranked Canadian in ATP or WTA rankings history. The only other Canadians to reach the top four are Milos Raonic and Bianca Andreescu. Raonic went as high as No. 3 in 2016, following his run to the Wimbledon final that year, and Andreescu peaked at No. 4 in 2019 after winning the US Open.

Canadian tennis has seen seven players reach the top 10 in either ATP or WTA history, with official rankings available since 1973 for the ATP and 1975 for the WTA.

Auger-Aliassime still has ground to cover to move higher in the standings. He is 2,865 points behind the current world No. 3, Alexander Zverev, with the rankings showing Zverev at 7,305 points and Auger-Aliassime at 4,440.

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The Canadian will shift his focus to grass. He begins his grass-court season this week at the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, entering as the No. 1 seed. After a first-round bye he will open against either Hubert Hurkacz or Marton Fucsovics.

The new ranking reflects a season of important progress for Auger-Aliassime and cements his place among the highest-ranked Canadians in modern tennis history.

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ATP French Open Grand Slam

Flavio Cobolli’s Roland Garros run vaults him into ATP Top 10

Flavio Cobolli entered the ATP Top 10 after his first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros. New ranking

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Flavio Cobolli’s breakthrough at Roland Garros produced a major ranking milestone. The 24-year-old reached his first Grand Slam semifinal and final in Paris and, despite losing the title match to Alexander Zverev in a five-set battle, climbed from No. 14 to No. 10 in the latest ATP rankings, marking his Top 10 debut.

Cobolli is the seventh Italian to enter the ATP Top 10 since the rankings began in 1973. He is also only the second Italian man in the past 50 years to contest the Roland Garros final, joining last year’s runner-up, Jannik Sinner. Born in 2002, Cobolli is the fifth man born in 2002 or later to reach the Top 10, following Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune, who were both born in 2003, and Lorenzo Musetti and Ben Shelton, who were both born in 2002.

The route to the final carried complicated circumstances. Cobolli advanced to the title match after countryman Matteo Arnaldi withdrew before their semifinal due to illness. Cobolli reflected on the day with mixed emotions: “When [Arnaldi] came to me almost one hour ago, I almost cried,” he said. “It’s something that you don’t expect at all. I was ready to play this match. When he came, I was completely sad for him.

“But at the same time, of course I’m really happy for the result that I reached this week. My dad also came to me right before him, and we had a big hug together with the whole team for achieving the Top 10. Every time that I make the best ranking, we all together have a big hug. We did the same routine as always.

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“Yeah, now I’m sad and happy at the same time.”

Arnaldi, 25, leaps from No. 104 to No. 34 after reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal, moving to within four spots of his 2024 career-high of No. 30. Matteo Berrettini also recorded a significant rise, moving from No. 105 to No. 48 after reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal since 2022 on the terre battue. For the former No. 6, it was his first appearance at Roland Garros since 2021, following four years marked by injury and illness withdrawals.

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French Open Grand Slam

Maja Chwalinska vaults to No. 21 after surprise run to Roland Garros final

Maja Chwalinska rises from No. 114 to No. 21 after reaching the Roland Garros final. into the Top 25

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The new WTA rankings produced a major leap for Maja Chwalinska, who climbs from No. 114 to No. 21 after reaching the first Grand Slam final of her career at Roland Garros. The 24-year-old from Poland achieved a sequence of breakthroughs during the clay-court major.

Her run was historically improbable. Chwalinska became the lowest-ranked woman to reach the Roland Garros final in the WTA rankings era, which dates to 1975. She was also only the second player in the Open Era, woman or man, to advance to a Grand Slam final as a qualifier, following Emma Raducanu.

Before the tournament she had never beaten a Top 50 opponent. At Roland Garros she defeated four Top 50 players en route to the title match: Elise Mertens, Maria Sakkari, Anna Kalinskaya and Diana Shnaider. The result smashed her previous career-high of No. 113 and delivered several milestone debuts — Top 100, Top 50, Top 40 and Top 30 — with her ranking finishing just shy of the Top 20.

Asked after the final about the gap in level between the elite and those outside the Top 100, she said: “I know many, many great players that are ranked outside Top 100,” she said. “You know, it’s such a thin line now. I feel like a lot of things need to click, but yeah, for sure there so many great players. Yeah, I wish them all the best. I hope that my story these last days was inspiring for them, and I’ll see them in the—let’s say—Top 50 now.”

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With few ranking points to defend until September, there is scope for further gains through the summer. Chwalinska plans a break before returning for the grass season. “I’m not going to play anything before grass, that’s before Wimbledon, that’s for sure. I definitely need some time to recharge,” she said. “Even before Roland Garros, I said that I need vacation after the tournament. So now it’s three weeks that I’m kind of like—not waiting, because I wanted to be here, but I just knew in the back of my head that I’m going for the vacation after French Open.

“Yeah, definitely need some time to recharge.”

The French Open champion, Mirra Andreeva, moves from No. 8 to No. 6, her best ranking this season and one spot shy of the career-high No. 5 she reached last year.

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