Sorribes Tormo was hoping that the switch of spin would earn her easy errors, but Raducanu only took a couple of minutes to adjust. In both cases, there was no attacking intent. On her backhand, she chiselled out a slice. When the ball came on her forehand, she looped it back with height and spin. Sorribes Tormo was paralysed – like a rodent hypnotised by the swaying hood of a cobra. The odd thing was how little threat was coming from the far side of the net. The difference this time was that she didn’t slow down after the first 25 minutes or so, but just kept sprinting. Raducanu has been coming out of the blocks like Dina Asher-Smith, a fellow alumnus of Newstead Wood School in Bromley, ever since she began her run in the qualifying tournament almost a fortnight ago. And no matter how many times she looked at her coach, Silvia Soler Espinosa, no answers presented themselves. She was clearly bemused and befuddled by the lightning strikes that were coming at her. The cameras caught Sorribes Tormo holding her head in her hands at one changeover in the middle of the second set, and no wonder. Especially not by 18-year-olds making their debut in an overseas grand slam.

Experienced battlers like Sorribes Tormo – a former European junior champion who finally cracked the world’s top 50 this season at the age of 24 – do not get bodyslammed 6-0, 6-1 in the third round of majors. She has won some extraordinary matches already this summer, but to drop just one game against the world No 41 was a mind-boggling outcome. But if Emma Raducanu fulfils the potential she is showing this fortnight – which every pundit agrees is the potential to win majors – then many thousands more will claim to have been there for this astonishing statement victory.įacing an apparently tough opponent in Sara Sorribes Tormo, Raducanu turned in an almost surreal display of mastery. Court 17 at Flushing Meadows can seat 2,700 people.

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