On Sunday, Daniil Medvedev didn’t seem like himself as he sat on his courtside chair, water bottle in hand, after his opening-round loss to Adam Walton at the Cincinnati Open. The Ohio heat had drained him both mentally and physically over two-and-a-half hours. Just a day later, Aryna Sabalenka and Emma Raducanu clashed in a classic battle of grit. And when the dust settled, Sabalenka bared the biggest gap between them, one that spoke louder than the scoreline, a ‘realization’ !

By the close of a breathless opening set against the world’s finest, Emma Raducanu was a portrait of grit painted over frustration. Rather than letting those emotions devour her, she sharpened them into steel, delivering one of the most commanding performances of her career. Under the punishing Cincinnati sun, s

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