Mumbai, Aug. 25 -- It's strange that for a city and tennis court that gave a teenager her life's most unforgettable couple of weeks, it took her four years to feel like she was back to her "happy place", as 2021 champion Emma Raducanu called the US Open. "I really struggled when I came back in 2022. I didn't enjoy coming back here," the Briton said in New York ahead of the 2025 tournament. "I think now is the first time that I feel like I can come back to the US Open and really enjoy the memories that I made here." A few other players could well relate to that sentiment - of conjuring their career's finest memories at the US Open followed by spiralling struggles. The season's last Major has been home to six one-time Slam winners in the last decade, across gender. One-time wonders aren't a one-Slam phenomenon, yet at the US Open it tends to be more frequent, and the boom-and-bust cycle of the champion steeper. Of Raducanu (2021), Daniil Medvedev (2021), Dominic Thiem (2020), Bianca Andreescu (2019), Sloane Stephens (2017) and Flavia Pennetta (2015) whose CV has the solitary Slam, only the 2021 winners are in the 2025 draw. Pennetta and Thiem have since retired while Stephens, the former world No.3 currently ranked 909, has swapped her racquet for a mic this US Open as a broadcaster. Except Pennetta, whose retirement announcement right after pocketing her only Slam was as surprising as her title itself, each of these one-timers has been through turmoil after their triumph. Thiem could not go beyond the fourth round in any Slam after his title, battling major injuries and indifferent form. He even went back to the Challenger level before calling it quits last year. Medvedev is still fighting among the elite, but is currently going through his worst season in which he hasn't won two Slam matches. While the men's 2021 champion still remained a Slam contender making three finals in the last four years, the women's 2021 champion had a staggering slide. Between her rousing run as a teen qualifier in 2021 and her return as a world No.36 in 2025, Raducanu did not win a single match at the US Open. Two first-round exits came either side of her injury absence in 2023. From making the top 10 in 2022, she fell out of the top 250 in 2023. The Brit had been pegged back by frequent injuries. She also curiously hired and fired coaches in a jiffy. Now working with Francisco Roig, a longtime face in Rafael Nadal's team, Raducanu appears to have finally found some stability. And some much-needed spark in results by making the semi-finals of the Citi Open and taking world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka the distance in Cincinnati. What also hindered the youngster's progress in the 2021 to 2025 rollercoaster were perils that can accompany overnight stardom. "When I won in 2021, I didn't know about this world of potential negativity and bringing people down, bringing players down," she said a couple of days ago. "I'd say that affected me a lot in the last few years. It still definitely gets me from time to time, but overall, I think I can enjoy what I'm doing day to day a lot more." Stephens's day to day presently involves preparing for questions instead of matches. The 2017 champion, whose expression after glancing at the winner's cheque amount summed up her personality, made another French Open final in 2018 and three quarter-finals thereafter. From 2023, the American's results dipped drastically, so did her ranking from single digits to lowly triple figures. The 32-year-old, who has spoken about issues of burnout and mental health, began this season with four straight opening-round defeats and hasn't competed since February. Never mind not as a player, she's still at Flushing Meadows. Andreescu isn't, even though she would have desperately wanted to. As the Canadian sat on court crying and holding her left ankle in Montreal last month late in her win over Barbora Krejcikova, it was yet another injury setback that she has had to endure after her 2019 title as a teen. In the six years since, she's made the fourth round of Slams just once, struck down by physical troubles and illness so frequently that she almost feels it is cursed, as she told WTA. Andreescu tried everything, including a change in diet and no-alcohol policy, to get her body to feel lighter. Every injury setback though only weighs heavier on her mind. "For me, it's just crazy. It's crazy," she said in Montreal. "I'm trying to stay positive, but it's getting really tough. It's getting really tough."...