Emma Raducanu\u2019s US Open campaign is just one day away, and the Brit will fancy her chances of getting her campaign off to a successful start.<\/p>\n
It has been four years since the Brit\u2019s stunning triumph in New York, though she has been unable to win a match at the tournament since then.<\/p>\n
However, she has been handed a kinder first-round draw in 2025, with the Brit set to face qualifier Ena Shibahara.<\/p>\n
The Japanese, who represented the US until 2019, has found huge success on the doubles courts across her career, and is now looking to make her mark as a singles player.<\/p>\n
Here, we look at all you need to know about the woman looking to shock Raducanu<\/a> at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n Though she is now plying her trade largely as a singles player, Shibahara\u2019s biggest successes have come on the doubles court.<\/p>\n The Japanese is, in fact, a Grand Slam champion in mixed doubles, partnering Wesley Koolhof to win the French Open back in 2022.<\/p>\n Shibahara is also a former US Open<\/a> mixed doubles semi-finalist, and reached a career-high of world No 4 on the WTA Tour doubles rankings.<\/p>\n Emma Raducanu \u2018relaxed and happy\u2019 as she reveals how she handles \u2018potential negativity\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Emma Raducanu handed glorious chance to reach WTA Rankings goal at US Open<\/a><\/p>\n The 27-year-old is the winner of 11 WTA Tour doubles titles, including WTA 1000 crowns at the 2021 Miami Open and 2023 Canadian Open, and was a finalist at the 2023 Australian Open.<\/p>\n Partnering compatriot Shuko Aoyama, the pair stunned second seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the last four, before falling to Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova in the final.<\/p>\n Recent seasons have seen Shibahara focus more significantly on singles, though she is still ranked as the world No 65 in the WTA doubles rankings.<\/p>\n Currently ranked as the world No 130, Shibahara reached her career-high singles ranking of world No 116 back in July.<\/p>\n To date, the biggest title she has won in her singles career came at W35 level, beating rising US star Iva Jovic at the ITF Spring event in February last year.<\/p>\n The Japanese has since gone on to reach a further four ITF Tour finals, as well as compete in Grand Slam qualifying.<\/p>\n Shibahara was beaten in round one of Australian Open qualifying earlier this year, though she reached the second round of qualifying at Roland Garros and the final round at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n However, this is the second straight year she has qualified for the US Open main draw.<\/p>\n Unseeded, the 27-year-old progressed through the qualifying draw twelve months ago and then beat Daria Saville for her first Grand Slam main-draw win, before defeat to top seed Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n Shibahara was seeded 20th in qualifying this year and did not drop a set to reach the main draw, defeating Kayla Day, Elena Pridankina, and sixth seed Varvara Gracheva.<\/p>\n This is not the first time that Raducanu and Shibahara have met on tour, with the two previously facing off at the Nottingham Open last year.<\/p>\n Raducanu was still making her way back up the WTA Rankings at that point, though she was a comprehensive winner over Shibahara, who had come through qualifying at the WTA 250 event.<\/p>\n The Brit beat Shibahara 6-1, 6-4 to progress through the opening round, and would go on to reach the last four.<\/p>\n US Open action begins on a Sunday for the first time this year, and Raducanu and Shibahara have the privilege of opening play on one of the tournament\u2019s biggest courts.<\/p>\n This round-one match is scheduled to take place on Court Louis Armstrong at 11 am New York time (4 pm UK time), among the very first matches of this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n The winner will face qualifier Janice Tjen or 24th seed Veronika Kudermetova in the second round on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: The 10 highest-paid tennis players in the last 12 months: Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Coco Gauff star<\/a><\/p>\n The post Who is Emma Raducanu\u2019s US Open Round 1 opponent? Qualifier and Slam winner Ena Shibahara<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emma Raducanu\u2019s US Open campaign is just one day away, and the Brit will fancy her chances of getting her campaign off to a successful start. It has been four years since the Brit\u2019s stunning triumph in New York, though she has been unable to win a match at the tournament since then. However, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Doubles success<\/h2>\n
Emma Raducanu News<\/h2>\n
Singles career<\/h2>\n
Head-to-head<\/h2>\n
Start time<\/h2>\n