For the second time in 12 days, Emma Raducanu squandered three match points before falling away dramatically in the final set as she was beaten 3-6, 7-6 (9), 6-0 in the third round of the China Open by Jessica Pegula. The defeat carried distinct echoes of her setback in the second round of the Korea Open against Barbora Krejcikova, when Raducanu lost a long second-set tie-break before surrendering the final set 6-1.
Over two hours and 21 minutes against Pegula, the world No7, Raducanu had played some brilliant, aggressive tennis to set up a second-set tie-break. But she was badly stung when Pegula produced remarkable backhand winners to save the first two match points. Raducanu then failed to convert a third match point on her own serve with an unforced forehand error. Her game unravelled after that and she looked drained in the final set, quickly sliding to a ninth consecutive defeat against a top-ten player.
She has clearly been making progress since starting work in August with her new coach, Francisco Roig, who previously worked with Rafael Nadal, and her serve is becoming a more potent weapon. The task now will be for Raducanu, the world No32, to maintain the front-foot approach she adopted for most of this match despite falling to a defeat that was all the more galling because she had come so close to victory.
Raducanu’s mother Renee watches alongside Roig
REUTERS
Watched from courtside by her mother, Renee, sitting with Roig, Raducanu had made a quick start, breaking serve and moving into a 4-1 lead before the weight of Pegula’s strokeplay brought her back into the game. The American broke back to trim the lead to 4-3, but Raducanu responded immediately with a brilliant cross-court forehand earning her the break that took her into a 5-3 lead, then serving out to claim the first set.
Raducanu’s past nine matches against top-ten opponentsMonday v Jessica Pegula (world ranking at time: 7) China Open, last 32: Lost 6-3, 6-7, 0-6August 29 v Elena Rybakina (10) US Open, last 32: Lost 1-6, 2-6August 7 v Aryna Sabalenka (1) Cincinnati, last 32: Lost 6-7, 6-4, 6-7July 27 v Amanda Anisimova (7) Montreal, last 32: Lost 2-6, 1-6June 30 v Aryna Sabalenka (1): Wimbledon, last 32: Lost 6-7, 4-6June 9 v Qinwen Zheng (5): Queen’s Club, quarter-final: Lost 2-6, 4-6May 26 v Iga Swiatek (5): French Open, last 64: Lost 1-6, 2-6May 6 v Coco Gauff (3): Rome, last 16: Lost 1-6, 2-6March 18 v Jessica Pegula (4): Miami, quarter-final: Lost 4-6, 7-6, 2-6
She took the momentum into the early stages of the second set, gamely hanging on to her serve in the second game when Pegula was beginning to look threatening. At 2-2 Pegula produced a gutsy hold of her own in a hard-fought game that featured two break points for Raducanu. Pegula threw her racket after a sublime sliced backhand winner by the British No1, yet Pegula did enough to cling on, and the second set moved inexorably towards a tie-break.
Raducanu produced an eye-catching backhand down the line to earn her first match point at 6-5 on Pegula’s serve. To a high second serve, Raducanu launched herself into a fierce backhand return, which the American somehow diverted back across the net for a backhand winner. That was a particularly tough moment for Raducanu, with victory a whisker away only for her opponent to conjure an unlikely escape route. On her second match point, also on Pegula’s serve, Raducanu played a fine forehand down the line, but Pegula’s backhand passing shot was another cruel blow.
The third match point, this time on her own serve, was lost when Raducanu mis-hit a forehand long, and from this point there was no return. Pegula won the tie-break when Raducanu pushed a forehand wide, and then came the wipeout of a third set. “I got a little lucky with the two backhand winners,” Pegula said. “Then I just kept trying to fight as long as I could.” Pegula will face Marta Kostyuk, the world No28 from Ukraine, in the last 16.
Sonay Kartal, the British No4, made it through to the fourth round in Beijing with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2, victory over Maya Joint, the 19-year-old Australian. Kartal, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and recently helped Great Britain to reach the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, will meet Mirra Andreeva for a place in the quarter-finals.