{"id":484147,"date":"2026-02-16T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/484147\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:30:08","slug":"emma-raducanu-briton-beaten-by-lucky-loser-in-dubai-tennis-championships-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/484147\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu: Briton beaten by lucky loser in Dubai Tennis Championships first round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">British number one Emma Raducanu has been knocked out of the Dubai Tennis Championships in the first round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She recovered from a set and a break down against Antonia Ruzic to force a decider but the Croatian prevailed, winning 6-1 5-7 6-2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ruzic is ranked 67th in the world and was one of seven lucky losers from qualifying to fill the main draw after several players pulled out through injury, illness or a schedule change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Raducanu&#8217;s initial opponent Elisabetta Cocciaretto was ruled out with a thigh problem and Ruzic won the first set in 30 minutes having twice broken Raducanu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The world number 25 then sought medical attention, just as she did <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/articles\/czr0g5jxxr7o\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last week at the Qatar Open<\/a> when she had to retire from her first-round match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Despite falling 5-3 down after being broken again in the second set, Raducanu fought back to claim two breaks and make it a set apiece.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Briton won six consecutive games at the end of the second set and start of the third to go 2-0 up in the decider, but Ruzic won the next six to clinch victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British number one Emma Raducanu has been knocked out of the Dubai Tennis Championships in the first round.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-484147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}