Britain’s Emma Raducanu suffered a disappointing defeat to world quantity 101 Cristina Bucsa of Spain within the opening spherical of the Singapore Open.
The 22-year-old was enjoying for the primary time since her 6-1 6-0 third spherical loss to Iga Swiatek on the Australian Open and the information her coach Nick Cavaday was stepping again from the position to “prioritise getting again to full well being”.
However in a gruelling encounter lasting three hours and three minutes and that includes 17 breaks of service, Bucsa got here by means of 5-7 7-5 7-5 in opposition to the seventh seed within the pair’s first assembly.
The Spaniard had served for the opening set at 5-4 up however Raducanu, ranked 56, rattled off the following three video games to take management of the match.
The second set began with three consecutive breaks of service to go away Bucsa 3-1 after which 4-2 up however Raducanu continued to battle and one other run of three video games in a row noticed her go 5-4 up however Bucsa responded with the following three video games to degree the match.
Each gamers struggled to carry serve within the decider however though a weary-looking Raducanu dug deep to edge 5-4 forward, Bucsa held after which broke her opponent at a vital time to go away her serving for the match.
The British quantity two saved a few match factors however Bucsa, the Olympic girls’s doubles bronze medallist, rapidly earned one other and this time Raducanu netted.
Bucsa will subsequent face both Sijia Wei of China or Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand within the final 16.