{"id":460506,"date":"2026-02-07T22:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460506\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:01:07","slug":"emma-raducanu-slumps-to-straight-sets-defeat-in-transylvania-open-final-emma-raducanu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460506\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu slumps to straight-sets defeat in Transylvania Open final | Emma Raducanu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu missed the chance to win her first title since her US Open triumph in 2021 after losing in straight sets to home favourite Sorana Cirstea in the Transylvania Open final.<\/p>\n

Raducanu, the top seed, appeared to be feeling the effects of her marathon semi-final win against Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandra Oliynykova<\/a> on Friday, falling to Cirstea 6-0, 6-2 in little over an hour in Cluj.<\/p>\n

Romanian Cirstea, 35 and in her final year on the Tour, sealed the fourth WTA title of her 20-year career.<\/p>\n

Raducanu, whose father is Romanian, was pushed to the limit in her last-four clash against Oliynykova 24 hours earlier and had no answers against Cirstea\u2019s big hitting.<\/p>\n

The British No 1 came under early pressure, eventually losing her opening service game having saved five break points, and she went on to lose the first set without winning a game in just 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

After losing a fourth successive service game to fall 2-0 down in the second set, Raducanu broke Cirstea to love to win her first game but then needed a medical timeout.<\/p>\n

She recovered to then hold her serve for the first time to level at 2-2 but could not maintain her momentum as Cirstea took the next three games to lead 5-2.<\/p>\n

A struggling Emma Raducanu has a medical timeout in the second set. Photograph: Alex Nicodim\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Raducanu appeared to have nothing left in the tank as she served to stay in the match and in the next game she lost her serve for a sixth time as Cirstea took the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to be in a final again,\u201d said Raducanu. \u201cSorana played great all week. She\u2019s in form for sure and I\u2019m really happy she was able to win this title at home. It meant a lot to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great week myself. I really enjoyed playing here. The crowd really made me feel like I was at home. It was a really special week for me. Today I didn\u2019t feel great, but it\u2019s not going to take away from my week.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was better news for the British No 4, Katie Boulter<\/a>, won won her first WTA title since June 2024 at the Ostrava Open. Boulter, the world No 120, lost the first set 7-5 against Germany\u2019s Tamara Korpatsch but battled back in impressive style, taking the second set 6-2 and the decider 6-1 to seal an emphatic victory in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

She will climb to 84 in the world rankings after wrapping up her victory in exactly two hours and adds her latest tournament win to previous successes in Nottingham (twice) and San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels incredible,\u201d said Boulter. \u201cI\u2019ve waited a long time for this one. I\u2019ve worked extremely hard after a really tough year and it feels like I got the reward I deserved after putting so much work in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely thrilled. I just don\u2019t want to stop working. I\u2019ve got a big year ahead of me. It\u2019s my wedding year and that\u2019s going to be the best year of my life, no matter what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Abu Dhabi Open, the Czech qualifier Sara Bejlek sealed a surprise first WTA Tour win by beating Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (5), 6-1 in the final. The 20-year-old will climb from 101 in the rankings into the top 50 after the best week of her career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu missed the chance to win her first title since her US Open triumph in 2021 after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-460506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}