Open champ exits in 2nd round
WIMBLEDON — Under pressure? You must be joking.
Emma Raducanu, who won last year’s U.S. Open at 18, hasn’t gotten past the second round at a Grand Slam tournament since.
On Wednesday, she lost to Caroline Garcia of France, 6-3, 6-3, on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
“There’s no pressure. Like, why is there any pressure? I’m still 19. Like, it’s a joke. I literally won a Slam,” the 19-year-old British player said. “Yes, I have had attention. But I’m a Slam champion, so no one’s going to take that away from me. Yeah, if anything, the pressure is on those who haven’t done that.”
The 10th-seeded Raducanu has dealt with minor injuries recently, including a side strain that forced her to retire from a match at the Nottingham Open two weeks ago. She said she didn’t feel any pain, but acknowledged being rusty after playing only “seven hours of tennis in a month.”
“To even compete with these girls at this level and win a round I think is a pretty good achievement,” she said.
Raducanu beat Alison Van
Uytvanck, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round — also in the main stadium — but ran into a player on a roll on Wednesday. Garcia, who has been ranked as high as No. 4, extended her winning streak to seven matches, which includes the Bad Homburg title in Germany last week for her first tournament win in three years.
“I struggled to find a way through her today,” Raducanu said. “But
it’s OK because coming into this I didn’t really have many expectations of myself. Playing on Centre Court again was, again, a really positive experience for me. So, yeah, I can take it going forward.”
TAN LEAVES PARTNER FURIOUS
A day after eliminating Serena Williams, Harmony Tan withdrew from doubles with a thigh injury,
surprising and angering her doubles partner.
Tan, a Frenchwoman ranked 115th who beat the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) on Centre Court on Tuesday, was scheduled to team with Tamara Korpatsch for their opening doubles match on Wednesday.
“She just texted this morning. Let me wait here 1 hour before the match start,” Korpatsch wrote in an Instagram post. “I’m very sad, disappointed and also very angry that I can’t play my 1st Doubles Grand Slam.
“And it’s really not fair for me ... I didn’t deserve that.”
Tan is scheduled to play No. 32 Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain in the second round of the singles tournament today. Sorribes Tormo advanced by defeating American qualifier Christina McHale, 6-2, 6-1.
The 24-year-old Tan is ranked 611th in doubles and has never played in that event at Wimbledon. Korpatsch, a 27-year-old German who is ranked 298th in doubles, lost in the first round of the singles tournament but has never played a doubles match at any Grand Slam tournament.
Tan was two points from losing to Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon champion who hadn’t played a singles match since injuring herself in the first round a year ago at the All England Club.
The match lasted 3 hours, 11 minutes.
“If you’re broken after a 3 (hour) match the day before, you can’t play professional (tennis). That’s my opinion,” Korpatsch wrote.