Britain's Emma Raducanu said she was not feeling under pressure less than a month before she returns to New York with a target on her back in her U.S. Open title defence.
Teenager Raducanu completed one of tennis' most remarkable feats a year ago at Flushing Meadows when the 150th-ranked qualifier swatted aside vastly more experienced opponents on her way to becoming a Grand Slam champion.
The triumph captured the imagination of an adoring British public but she has not won a tournament since, retiring injured in Rome in May and at Nottingham in June and exiting both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon in the second round.
While a return to the raucous crowds of the Big Apple could shake even veteran competitors, the 19-year-old told Sky Sports the only pressure she feels comes from herself and the media.
"(Pressure) is only either what I put on myself or what I expect from myself. I only feel the pressure or think about it whenever I'm in my press conferences because every single question is about pressure," Raducanu said.
The 10th-ranked Briton most recently lost in the Citi Open quarter-finals to lower ranked Liudmila Samsonova, and said she saw this year's U.S. Open as an opportunity to start afresh.
{{/usCountry}}The 10th-ranked Briton most recently lost in the Citi Open quarter-finals to lower ranked Liudmila Samsonova, and said she saw this year's U.S. Open as an opportunity to start afresh.
{{/usCountry}}"I'm really looking forward to just going back (to New York) and whatever happens I think that it's going to be a nice close to a chapter, go full circle," she said.
"Regardless of whatever the result is I can just start again, clean slate. If all my points drop off then I'll work my way back up. I think it will be, regardless of what happens, (a) fresh start."