The way Cornet has been playing, it seems surprising that she is talking about retiring next summer.

Indeed, Raducanu is the fifth major champion that she has beaten at the slams this year, after Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep, Jelena Ostapenko and world No1 Iga Swiatek. Ranked No37, Cornet has been collecting notable scalps all season. But once you looked beyond that group, Cornet was about the most awkward option imaginable. Her seeding might have saved her from playing 31 other notable opponents in the first round. If 2021’s cards fell perfectly for Raducanu, then the sporting gods took their revenge here this week. But she no longer has a seat at the table as one of the leading players on the tour. She still has her 2.5m Instagram followers, and her ten endorsement contracts. The queen of New York has thus reverted to commoner status, with a ranking that will plunge some 70-odd places to around No 80 in the world. Raducanu’s 6-3, 6-3 defeat occupied a brisk 1hr 42min and found her struggling to establish any kind of rhythm against a hugely disruptive opponent. The result was a lesson in courtcraft and sheer bloody-mindedness. At 32, Cornet is an obdurate character who was playing a record 63rd consecutive grand slam. This time around, she came up against one of the trickiest customers on the tour. If only Raducanu could have started with a nice, nerve-settling opener against someone ranked outside the world’s top 250 – just as she did last year. If Raducanu’s 2021 triumph was a hothouse flower, seeded in the obscurity of the qualifying event and nurtured gently into bloom, then her return to her favourite tournament was brutally short and unforgiving. Lightning failed to strike twice in New York as Emma Raducanu lost in the first round of the US Open: a straight-sets victim of veteran Frenchwoman Alize Cornet. Emma Raducanu's blisters: is she allergic to her racket?.Why Raducanu's US Open title defence fell at the first hurdle.Briton could now plunge to world No 80 after defeat.Raducanu falls to straight-sets loss on return to New York.

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