Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon adventure is over for another year after she suffered a disappointing defeat against Lulu Sun.
After taking the agonising decision to pull out of the mixed doubles and effectively end Andy Murray’s Wimbledon career, the former US Open winner would’ve hoped the extra time she afforded herself to prepare would pay off.
Instead, Raducanu slipped to disappointing defeat against an inspired opponent who hit winner after winner and capitalised on the home favourite’s inconsistent service.
Raducanu got off to an inauspicious start, broken in the opening game of the match as the Centre Court crowd favourite struggled to get to grips with the task at hand.
The 21-year-old lost her next service game in tentative fashion but responded with a break of her own to get on the scoreboard and apply a semblance of pressure to her opponent.
Sun, however, regained her composure and after a routine hold broke again to take a 5-2 lead after just 35 minutes of play.
The qualifier from New Zealand could have been forgiven for feeling nervous as she served for the set but she looked totally at ease with the occasion and closed it out in emphatic fashion.
Raducanu attempted to make inroads at the start of the second set but continued to find the left-handed Sun an awkward customer to deal with.
The New Zealander was tested in the fourth game of the second set but kept her nerve as Raducanu wasted two break points but regained her composure to hold in testing circumstances having been taken to deuce.
An increasingly even contest stayed on serve until the 12th game of the set when Sun finally displayed signs of losing her composure.
A missed overhead smashed proved particularly costly as Raducanu pounced and took the set 7-5.
Raducanu would’ve hoped to have built on the momentum she created at the start of the decider but she was immediately dealt a setback after she rolled her ankle stretching to reach the ball on her forehand side.
After a lengthy medical timeout, Raducanu looked understandably tentative and immediately lost her serve.
Worse was to follow in the seventh game of the set when Raducanu surrendered her serve again to fall two breaks behind, allowing Sun to close out the match in impressive fashion.
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