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Emma Raducanu’s Australian Open exit leaves one damning conclusion

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As Emma Raducanu acknowledged herself, winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier was always going to set an extremely unfair level of expectations for an inexperienced player so early on in their career, with so much still to learn. But, four-and-a-half years after that night in New York, the British No 1 admitted the attempts to develop her game have not worked, that it’s time to take a step back, “re-evaluate”, and perhaps play more like she did when she was younger.

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Raducanu’s second-round exit to Anastasia Potapova at the Australian Open followed a difficult off-season where the 23-year-old was limited by a foot injury. Making it to the start line in Melbourne, let alone playing five matches so far this season, she said, was pretty surprising. Raducanu said her foot has not been 100 per cent during the Australian Open and it will require further assessment once she returns home. Tricky court conditions, with a swirling wind arounds the grounds, didn’t help either.

But the biggest problem Raducanu identified after her 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 defeat to Potapova, the world No 55, was the absence of what she called her tennis “identity”. Despite leading 5-3 in the opening set against Potapova, Raducanu was erratic and tentative, played without confidence behind her attacking shots, and felt she had to scrap to survive. As the errors piled up, the weapon that made her perhaps the most unexpected grand slam champion of all time in 2021 – her big, early forehand strike – deserted her.

“At the end of the day, I just want to hit the ball to the corners and hard,” she said. “I feel like I’m doing all this variety, and it’s not doing what I want it to do. I need to just work on playing in a way more similar to how I was playing when I was younger. I always just changed direction, took the ball early, and went for it. I think I do have the ability to do many things on the court, but I feel like as I’m learning all those skills, it’s like I need to stick to my guns a bit as well and work on that. For me, it’s pretty simple.”

Raducanu’s admission that she feels she has lost her way is perhaps not surprising given the revolving door of coaches that followed her shock grand slam breakthrough – “I think there are just many iterations that are going on and have gone on,” she said – but Raducanu has now found some stability in Francisco Roig, the Spaniard who was part of Rafael Nadal’s team during a large chuck of his illustrious career. Yet Raducanu was particularly flat and subdued against Potapova, her head dropping after losing the first set, and there appeared to be little to no communication with her coaching box.

“I think I want to be playing a different way, and I think the misalignment with how I’m playing right now and how I want to be playing is something that I just want to work on,” she said. “I think there are definitely pockets of me playing how I want to play, and it comes out in flashes, which is a positive, and maybe more than certain times in my career in the last few years. But it’s not how I want to be consistently every day. It’s not going to fall into place straight away, but the more I work on how I want to be playing, it will be more of my identity every time I step onto the court.”

Perhaps the most concerning aspect of Raducanu’s dissatisfaction was her struggles with her forehand, which gave up 16 of her 28 unforced errors during the defeat. Before the Australian Open, Raducanu was asked about the different forehand swing she brought to Melbourne, which is now bigger and higher, taking more time to get around the ball, and pointedly said the changes were “not something that I really wanted to happen”. Raducanu knows she is not the same player without her favourite strike. “I definitely want to feel better on certain shots before I start playing again,” she said, identifying that fixing the forehand will be more of a priority than her foot.

After a positive 2025 season, where Raducanu returned to the world’s top 30 and ensured she was seeded for a major for the first time in three years, being sidelined for the majority of the off-season undoubtedly stalled her progress. She was limited to static drills before flying to Australia and, at a time of the season where the majority of other players are fresh and ready to go, Raducanu did not feel set once the year began. Last season, her exits at the grand slams came to the very best players in the world, in Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina. Still, another tough draw followed. Despite her seeding at the Australian Open, a third-round clash with top seed Sabalenka loomed large in Melbourne.

But Raducanu did not even make it that far. It is, in many ways, a backwards step, which in turn may lead to Raducanu returning to square one and winding back the clock in a bid to find the answers.

 

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Paige Spiranac’s surprising NFL fandom confession triggers heated debate over loyalty, authenticity, and fan culture

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The 2026 NFL Draft starts Thursday night in Pittsburgh, and the spotlight isn’t only on prospects and front offices. Golf influencer Paige Spiranac has again found herself pulled into NFL conversation, this time for her open support of multiple teams.

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With the Steelers hosting the first round, her long-standing connection to Pittsburgh has resurfaced. But it’s not just about hometown ties. Her broader fandom, which stretches beyond one franchise, continues to draw mixed reactions at a time when fan loyalty is often treated as non-negotiable.

Paige Spiranac roots for 2 NFL teams: Who are they?

Paige Spiranac has never hidden where her loyalties lie, even if they don’t fit the usual mold. She has consistently pointed to her roots while leaving space for other allegiances.

“Both my parents are from Pittsburgh so I’ve been a Steelers ..fan since the day I was born. I also love the Bills. It’s a complicated relationship…Who’s your team?” she previously asked her followers. It’s a candid admission, one that reflects personal history more than calculated fandom.

Still, the reaction has been sharp. NFL culture tends to rew ..

 

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Quiet moments on the course can say a lot about what’s coming next.

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Sometimes the most important work happens when nobody is really watching.
Lexi Thompson was out on the 18th green, working through her putting during a practice round ahead of the Chevron Championship in Houston.

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It’s a simple scene, but it shows the kind of quiet preparation that goes into these big tournaments—getting the feel of the greens, adjusting to conditions, and building trust in every stroke.

These are the small details that can shape how a player starts when the pressure kicks in.

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Predicting what will happen to Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson if LIV Golf collapses

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It looks like LIV Golf is over.

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The Saudi Public Investment Fund has reportedly decided that this league simply isn’t worth the hole it’s burning in their pocket, and they’re pulling funds at the end of 2026.

That gives them less than a year to seek new investment. While CEO Scott O’Neil seems confident, it’s going to be extremely difficult to secure funding for a league that is operating at such eye-watering losses.

So this probably pulls the curtain closed on one of the most turbulent, frustrating, confusing, and ridiculous eras in golfing history. Hopefully, we can all return to some reality after the year is over.

But there is still so much uncertainty surrounding golf’s future thanks to this. Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed saw the signs early and jumped ship, but they did that with some leverage. So what on earth is going to happen to the rest of these players who didn’t take the olive branch when it was offered to them?

Feelings will be hurt, and careers will be ended. Let’s take a look.

Jon Rahm rejoins the PGA Tour

Koepka returned to the PGA Tour under the returning member program, which saw him pay $5 million to charity, accept that he’ll receive no FedEx Cup bonus money, and agree he cannot be a sponsor exemption for the 2026 signature events.

 

That same deal was offered to Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. They didn’t accept it, but a similar offer will likely be handed out to them again.

 

If LIV Golf folds, Rahm will not hold the same leverage as Koepka did, but he is a bigger star at this stage of his career. Make no mistake, the PGA Tour will want him back immediately.

But Rahm does risk leaving himself without any options at all. Reed didn’t come straight back to the PGA Tour, so he’s spending a year on the DP World Tour first. You’d imagine Rahm would consider doing the same, but it might not be so easy for him.

Rahm is in a feud with the DP World Tour, as the only one of eight players to reject a deal which would have seen him retain his full-time membership. If Rahm agreed to play in six DP World Tour events this year, then he could have played on both LIV Golf and the tour. He did not agree.

For now, his membership is at risk. So, will it be possible for him to spend a season on the DP World Tour like Reed? Maybe not. That makes it all the more likely that Rahm will be back on the PGA Tour the moment LIV folds.

Bryson DeChambeau does YouTube full-time

With DeChambeau, I don’t think it’s as much of a done deal that he returns to the PGA Tour. Not immediately anyway.

He’s been negotiating his contract with LIV, which expires at the end of this season. During these negotiations, he’s made it very clear that he is completely willing to step away from full-time competition and be a full-time YouTuber.

DeChambeau’s channel has over two million subscribers, so he could feasibly do that with all of the money he’s making there.

He was annoyed to see LIV move to a four-day format, so he could commit himself fully to being the content king. It would be a wild thing to do, but it’s also exactly the kind of move you could see the two-time major winner making.

He could qualify for The Open Championship and the US Open, and earn enough points there to play The Masters and the PGA Championship. It’s possible.

He does seem to live for competition, so maybe YouTube won’t quite scratch the itch, but it is on the table for DeChambeau. At least for a year until his suspension expires. Out of Rahm and DeChambeau, the American is absolutely the least likely to take a deal.

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