Emma Raducanu played one of her best matches in recent memory at the Wimbledon Championships on Friday night.
The 23-year-old went toe-to-toe with world number one Aryna Sabalenka for a spot in the fourth round.
She produced some excellent shotmaking under the Centre Court roof and the home crowd backed her until the very end.
Raducanu ultimately succumbed to a 6-7, 4-6 defeat but she pushed Sabalenka to her limit and earned several chances to go on and win the match, which she was unable to take.
Emma Raducanu was ‘frustrated’ with her rackets during a defeat to Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon
Emma Raducanu had Aryna Sabalenka under serious pressure at times during their third round contest at Wimbledon.
The 2021 US Open winner served for the first set, but she failed to take the opportunity and Sabalenka broke back and clinched the 74-minute set on a tiebreak.
Raducanu fought back and surged into a 4-1 lead in the second set, and missed break point opportunities to go ahead 5-1.
But Sabalenka held on and showed why she is the WTA’s top-ranked player by claiming five successive games to wrap up a 7-6, 6-4 win. Post-match Raducanu admitted she was annoyed with some of her rackets during the first set.
“You read. Um, I don’t think differently. I think I could have just, like, executed a bit better. I think in the first set as well I was struggling with, um, like, the tension. I felt like the ball was flying,” she told reporters.
“You know, I had, like, all my rackets strung up fresh for the match and just felt like it was pinging completely different and it could have been a little bit because the roof was on and I sent a couple rackets to be restrung.
“But, you know, it takes like 20 minutes by the time they turn it over and still, like, it was a bit difficult. So I’m frustrated with that part, maybe small details, but, I don’t think I, like, could have made different choices. I think I should have just executed better.”
Emma Raducanu provides positive fitness update after losing at Wimbledon
Raducanu had some concerns about her back during the grass court season.
The injury forced Raducanu to withdraw from the Berlin Open and take a medical timeout during her quarter-final loss to Qinwen Zheng at Queen’s.
But in the aftermath of her Wimbledon campaign, Raducanu has said her back gave her very few problems during the tournament.
“Yeah, I think it got better throughout the tournament. I was doing a lot of work on it,” the British number one said. “I was happy it was kind of holding up, you know, because in this one that was kind of getting worse and then before the tournament, it was still quite stiff.
“And then, you know, today, I actually felt pretty good on it. I’ve been getting a lot of work on it, been doing the right things off the court, so it shows me that being, you know, semi-professional kind of work sometimes. So that’s helpful to know.”
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