Emma Raducanu struggles with illness in Australian Open defeat by Yafan Wang

Emma Raducanu’s Australian Open resulted in an exhausting battle and a bout of illness, however no lack of drama. She has a knack for intriguing scripts.

Raducanu appeared exhausted, nauseous and wanting breath throughout her 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat by the hands of the super-solid Chinese participant Yafan Wang. Even so, she performed some terrific tennis at instances, particularly throughout a second-set interval when her forehand caught mild.

A function of this contest was the preponderance of lengthy rallies. There had been no fewer than 47 factors that lasted greater than 9 pictures. Which could also be one cause why Raducanu – who has had treasured little matchplay since coming back from a nine-month damage layoff – started to look gassed early within the second set.

Around an hour later – which translated to just one set, so slowly did the scoreboard inch alongside – she known as the coach to the courtroom, had her blood-pressure checked and took some remedy. From then on, she was shifting extraordinarily slowly between factors, however nonetheless competed strongly and pushed Yafan all the way in which to the end line.

Raducanu will need to have felt that she was wanting in a mirror at instances, as she took on a neat, fleet-footed opponent with a excessive ball-toss and an impeccable backhand wing. Both ladies had been making an attempt to assemble intelligent patterns in rallies that got here to resemble athletic chess.

It was Yafan, although, who had the extra resilient physicality. After a marathon 2hr 54min, Raducanu tried to drive the ball straight at her opponent from brief vary, hit the web, and went out of the Australian Open. She is but to succeed in the third spherical of a serious since her US Open triumph.

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Emma Raducanu vs Yafan Wang: As it occurred