Emma Raducanu Makes ‘Kit Kat’ Confession After Wimbledon Dream Shattered by Aryna Sabalenka

Although Emma Raducanu once again crashed out of a Grand Slam tournament without making a deep run, she is proud of how she performed against World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka. They faced each other in the third round of Wimbledon on Friday (July 4) and Sabalenka, with a scoreline of 7-6(6), 6-4, secured a spot in the fourth round of the grass-court Major for the third time in her career.

She improved her head-to-head record over the home favorite to 2-0. Raducanu had played the fourth round here twice (in 2021 and 2024) and before losing to the three-time Grand Slam singles champion, she had breezed past her opponents in the previous rounds in straight sets.

Raducanu knew beforehand that playing the Belarusian would be a tough challenge for her. At the press conference later, Raducanu was asked how she would be processing the defeat- whether she would watch the match back and whether she would have trouble sleeping.

First thing I did, I had a Kit Kat in the changing room (laughs). I’ll probably find it tough to sleep tonight or I’ll be so exhausted and crash. It’s gonna take me a few days to process. At the same time, it really motivates me and it could be a good thing that I’m like, ‘Ok, I wanna get straight back to work,’ pretty much.

Raducanu was searching for her second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, following the 2021 US Open, which she won as a teenager and qualifier. The following year, the 22-year-old reached her career-best No.10 ranking because of her injury problems and a slump in form, which affected her rankings badly. But Sabalenka has backed her to reach the top 10 again in the future.

Aryna Sabalenka hopes to remain focused after beating Emma Raducanu

The atmosphere on Centre Court was intense when Aryna Sabalenka was playing with Emma Raducanu. It was so loud that Sabalenka did something that Novak Djokovic used to do a lot earlier in his career when he faced his biggest rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.