In recent years on the WTA Tour, it has seemed like winning a Grand Slam has been at least as much a curse as a blessing.
Two poster girls for that theory face off on Tuesday, with 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu taking on 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin.
Since her breakout year Kenin has reached only a single final and Raducanu has made none, with both admitting the pressure of backing up those major wins has at times been crippling.
Kenin, now 25, was a teen prodigy and her win Down Under was far less out-of-the-blue than Raducanu’s Fairytale of New York.
But she is yet to fully recover from a horrific run in 2022, when a combination of injury and nine defeats on the trot saw her fall from 12 to 412 in the rankings.
Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, takes on Sofia Kenin at Flushing Meadows
Both Raducanu and Kenin are poster girls for the theory major wins are a blessing and a curse
She has only won one of her last seven coming into this event and Raducanu starts as favourite. But Kenin is an awkward, unconventional opponent who moves superbly and is a master at redirecting pace.
The British No 2 is playing her first match since August 2 after she skipped qualifying events in Toronto and Cincinnati and Kenin will hope to expose any lack of match sharpness.
Raducanu has played only 29 matches this year and, while her 18-11 record is impressive, the worry is that she is not competing enough to build up reserves of fitness. Since winning the title here she is yet to win more than three matches at one event.
Her last-16 defeat by qualifier Lulu Sun at Wimbledon looked a classic example of running out of steam.
But Raducanu has looked good whenever she has got on court this year and a win would likely set up a high-profile meeting with American No 6 seed Jessica Pegula, who Raducanu beat in Eastbourne in June.
Raducanu has looked good on court this year and she is the favourite to beat Kenin
Raducanu is one of four British players in action and, other than Dan Evans against 2022 semi-finalist Karen Khachanov, all are favourites to progress. British No 1 Katie Boulter plays Aliaksandra Sasnovich and looks a decent bet to make the third round, where she could face Pegula or Raducanu.
Jack Draper, the 25th seed, gets underway with one of the tougher opening rounds he could have faced against world No 41 Zhang Zhizhen. The muscle-bound Chinese player hits a huge ball and it would be no surprise to see this one go to five sets.
The match of the day on paper is No 10 seed Jelena Ostapenko against four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who continues to struggle in her first year back on tour since giving birth to daughter Shai in July 2023.
The Japanese star said in Cincinnati: ‘I don’t feel like I’m in my body’, a typically honest articulation of the difficulties facing women who return to elite sport after childbirth.
Not since Kim Clijsters at the 2011 Australian Open has a mother won a Grand Slam, but Osaka ought to have a great chance to break that mould once she rediscovers her sea legs.
She reported before this tournament that she is feeling far better than in Cincinnati and put that partially down to opening up about her out-of-body experience.
Naomi Osaka has continued to struggle in her first year back on tour after giving birth
Jannik Sinner will be in action for the first time since his two failed doping tests were revealed
‘It’s like speaking your words into the universe and letting them go,’ she said. ‘After you see it, you’re free from the thoughts that muddle your mind.’
On the men’s side, Jannik Sinner will take to the court for the first time since his two failed doping tests were revealed.
He was adjudged not to be at fault for the traces of clostebol, a tribunal accepting his contention that a spray used to treat his physio’s cut finger was the cause of the contamination, but several of his fellow players have been less than supportive.
We will see how the fans react and if ever there was an environment to raise the possibility of barracking it is this one.
Fans are always raucous here and Sinner will face American Mackenzie McDonald in the second match of the night session on Arthur Ashe.
The world No 1 will hope patrons lubricated by the US Open’s $23 Honey Deuce cocktail have not been following the news recently.
