Emma Raducanu’s struggles highlighted by stat on unwanted list
Emma Raducanu’s latest defeat has sent her to the bottom of an alarming statistic concerning Grand Slam winners at WTA-1000 events.
Raducanu, whose only title to date came at the 2021 US Open, now has a win percentage of just 42.3% in the WTA Tour events, making her the worst-performing Grand Slam winner since the format was changed in 2009.
Here are the bottom five worst-performing Grand Slam winners in WTA-1000 events, according to Opta.
5. Jelena Ostapenko – 54.7%
Like Raducanu, Latvian Ostapenko had her own incredible run to Grand Slam success at the 2017 French Open.
Unseeded, she had never won a Tour-level title before and did so by not only beating No 3 Simona Halep in the final but fought back from a set and 3-0 down to claim victory.
The 20-year-old’s career since then, however has failed to reach similar heights.
She was knocked out in the first round at Roland Garros the following two seasons and has never returned to a Grand Slam final. Her best effort was the 2018 semi-final at Wimbledon as well as four quarter-final appearances.
In WTA 1000 tournaments, she won the Qatar Open in 2018 and the Cincinnati Open in 2022 but has 17 first-round eliminations on her record.
4. Sloane Stephens – 53.8%
Sloane Stephens won her home Grand Slam in 2017 in an all-American clash against Madison Keys.
Stephens dominated, winning 6-3, 6-0, in the performance of her career, but she struggled to replicate that form in WTA 1000 events.
Her sole title came at the 2018 Miami Open, but since her semi-final at the 2019 Madrid Open, she has failed to make it past the quarters.
3. Sofia Kenin – 51.3%
Another American on this list is Sofia Kenin, who at 26 has plenty of time to move herself up and off this ranking.
An Australian Open champion in 2020, she made the final of the French Open in that Covid-hit season but has not made it past the fourth round in any slam since then.
In WTA 1000 events, she has reached the semi-final three times but has failed to progress past that stage, winning 37 matches but losing 44.
2. Francesca Schiavone – 42.4%
After Kenin, there is a sizeable drop down to Francesca Schivanone, who won less than half of her WTA 1000 matches.
Her Grand Slam success came at the 2010 French Open, the only Slam she made it past the quarters, when she defeated Samantha Stosur. Schiavone then made the final the following year but lost to Li Na.
Despite 110 entries, including some before the 2009 change, Schiavone never won a WTA 1000 event and just once reached the final, at the 2005 Kremlin Cup.
Post-2009, she made it to quarters three times and the semi-final once but was largely eliminated in the opening rounds before retiring in 2018.
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1. Emma Raducanu – 42.3%
Raducanu’s latest defeat at Indian Wells pushed her just marginally below Schiavone, meaning she has the unwanted record of being the worst-performing Grand Slam winner in WTA 1000 events history.
Following the fairytale win at the 2021 US Open, Raducanu has struggled to recapture their magic, especially in WTA 1000 tournaments.
Her best effort came at the 2023 Indian Wells event but a fourth-round exit hardly lived up to her US Open exploits.
She has reached the third round on four occasions but has more first-round exits than anything else on her record.
Coupled with a third-round demolition by Iga Swiatek and Raducanu’s 2025 has got off to a rough start.
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