The great challenge of professional tennis is not just performing at a high level but doing so week after week, regardless of the conditions, for a sustained period of time. Emma Raducanu has shown that she is capable of short bursts of excellence, but consistency and durability remain elusive. On Wednesday she suffered a comprehensive defeat in the first round of the Madrid Open, losing 6-2, 6-2 to María Lourdes Carlé, an Argentinian qualifier.
Raducanu had arrived in Madrid having led Great Britain to victory over France in the Billie Jean King Cup before reaching the quarter-final in Stuttgart, a WTA 500 event, only losing in two tight sets to Iga Swiatek, the world No 1. But here she put in a dire performance. She struggled to find her range, missing badly as her unforced errors piled up off both wings.
To her credit, Carlé had worked her way through the qualifying draw without dropping a set and she stepped on to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Stadium filled with confidence and armed with a game built for clay. She brilliantly outmanoeuvred Raducanu with her potent topspin forehand, angles and drop shots.
“It was a tough match because she played very well I thought,” said Raducanu. “She’s a very experienced clay-courter and she has a lot more knowledge and experience on the surface. Credit to her, she played a great match and I definitely didn’t, so that’s how it is.”
Raducanu cited fatigue as one of the reasons behind her listless performance, after just two and a half weeks of competition.
“The last few weeks have been a lot. Starting from the Billie Jean King Cup, I haven’t stopped. It’s just been back-to-back and I was very happy being able to help carry the team in the BJK Cup, then straight to Stuttgart with no rest, then straight here and trying to adapt to the conditions which are very different because it’s outdoors and I was playing indoors for the last month. Many factors have made it very difficult to fully compete today but overall I’ve been playing pretty well.”
Raducanu was also competing without her coach, Nick Cavaday, in Madrid. Iain Bates, the Lawn Tennis Association’s head of women’s tennis and a regular presence in her camp, had flown into Madrid at short notice to accompany her. “I definitely missed him not being here, so that kinda sucked,” she said. “I had Iain here, which was great that he was able to drop everything and come out. It’s not easy but then the circumstances wouldn’t align to how you want them to. I just didn’t really deal with everything too well.”
Having been granted a wildcard for the Madrid Open which is now owned by IMG, Raducanu’s agency, her failure to take advantage of the opportunity leaves her in an interesting position. It is unclear whether the Italian Open, the next tour-level event on the calendar, will offer Raducanu a wildcard. There will be numerous lower-level European WTA 125 events in the coming weeks, which could be extremely helpful, but the 21-year-old has so far shown little interest in entering smaller tournaments.
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Asked what is next for her, Raducanu simply said that she will take the coming days off to recharge. “I think from the performance today it was very clear that mentally and emotionally I was exhausted,” she said. “I was trying to push through. I was pushing through Stuttgart and was just unable to push through today. So yeah, it’s a shame that I was feeling so good on the court and today happened, but I guess this sport is just pretty brutal.”
Raducanu’s fellow Briton Harriet Dart, also lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, against Spain’s Cristina Bucsa but Jack Draper held on to defeat Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, setting up a last-64 tie with the eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz.