Agony for Raducanu as she falls just short
THE search for a deep run at a tournament outside a Grand Slam goes on for Emma Raducanu, who agonisingly missed out on the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open last night.
A third straight win beckoned for the first time since New York, only for her to be edged by Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine.
She prevailed 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 after two hours and 18 minutes during which there was little to separate them. Raducanu, who left the court after the first set for some treatment, had a couple of slips at 4-4 in the decider and that was the difference.
The US Open champion nearly broke straight back in the final game but was left to trudge off. It will be little consolation that, overall, progress continues to be made in a phase of the season that is a learning process.
Kalinina is not one of the better-known Ukrainian women but showed why she has claimed an increasing amount of good wins this year. She struck the ball superbly in the opening set and Raducanu, who had been holding her lower back early on, had little response.
After the hiatus caused by her treatment the Kent teenager closed off her opponent’s effective cross court backhand and served more consistently, extracting errors.
Louis Cayer, the veteran LTA coach being used as a part-time technical consultant by Raducanu, was watching courtside and would have been pleased.
Kalinina left the court after the second set and she rediscovered her range to go 3-1 up. The pendulum swung both ways thereafter in the kind of match which showed why women’s tennis has so few players able to establish any kind of superiority.
Earlier, Jack Draper showed that he will be a threat at Wimbledon this summer, for which he looks set to be automatically qualified. The 20-year-old’s rapid improvement was emphasised when he came close to defeating world No 8 Andrey Rublev before being pipped 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.
Having started the season at 265 he is now on the cusp of the top 100, which ought to see him straight into the Championships without the need of a wildcard.
The power of his southpaw serve and forehand at times drew gasps from the crowd, and had the Russian, whose own groundstrokes are huge, rocked back on his heels for a lot of the match.
Draper did not quite have the knowhow to close the match out from 3-0 in the decider, and played a slightly loose game at 5-5, but it is little wonder that he is being talked about as comfortably having top 10 potential.
Draper said: ‘I’m gutted that I couldn’t sustain my level and come through the match, but this week’s a new experience for me, being on the clay in a top event like this. I surprised myself a little that I can play a very high level on the clay. I still feel like I’ve got so much more in me.’