EMMA RADUCANU suffered a setback ahead of Wimbledon as the former US Open champion crashed to a shock defeat against Australian teenager Maya Joint in the second round at Eastbourne on Wednesday (25).
After a difficult year marred by poor form and back problems, Raducanu had hoped for a morale-boosting run at Eastbourne before Wimbledon starts on Monday (30).
But the British star slumped to a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) loss that leaves her short of match practice leading into the grass-court Grand Slam.
Raducanu missed last week's Berlin Open due to the back problem she has been nursing since before the French Open.
On Tuesday (24), the 22-year-old held back tears after recovering from a set down to defeat American Ann Li in the Eastbourne first round, then admitted she had been dealing with "some really bad news".
World number 38 Raducanu, who won the US Open in 2021, is building towards her fourth Wimbledon appearance, where she has twice reached the fourth round.
But Joint had knocked out two-time Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur in the first round on Monday (23) and the 19-year-old made Raducanu her second high-profile victim of the week.
"I feel quite tired. Just going through some stuff and I need to do my best to get my head in the game ahead of next week," Raducanu said.
"Realistically, the turnaround (to Wimbledon) is pretty soon. I'm just going to start with a day off tomorrow and then hopefully I can get on the court on Friday."
Joint faces world number 69 Anna Blinkova in the quarter-finals.
"Today was really tough, there were a lot of ups and downs and momentum switches. I was really glad I could tough it out in the end. The atmosphere was amazing," the world number 51 said after the second grass-court win of her career.
Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova saved three match points to reach the quarter-finals with a gutsy 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3) against Britain's Jodie Burrage.
Twenty four hours after Harriet Dart spurned two match points against Krejcikova, the second-seeded Czech had to dig deep again to avoid defeat after falling 0-40 down at 5-6 in the deciding set.
Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko pulled out due to a foot injury with the score 0-6, 6-2, 3-2 against Alexandra Eala, a 20-year-old qualifier from the Philippines.
In the men's event at Eastbourne, British world number 170 Dan Evans enjoyed a surprise 6-4 3-6, 6-3 win against second seed Tommy Paul.
Defending champion Taylor Fritz's second-round clash with rising Brazilian star Joao Fonseca was suspended at one set all due to bad light.
Fritz, the world number five, has won the Eastbourne title three times.
The American took the first set 6-3, but the 18-year-old Fonseca, ranked 57th, hit back to win the second 7-6 (7/5), forcing the match to be played to a conclusion on Thursday (26).
(AFP)
