Emma Raducanu suffered her third first-round event defeat inside two weeks as she misplaced 6-3 7-5 to Ekaterina Alexandrova on the Qatar Open.
The 22-year-old Briton had been handed her second successive wildcard for the WTA’s newest event within the Center East however was handed a tricky draw towards the Russian world No 25, who was contemporary from successful the Linz Open final week.
Raducanu had impressively crushed Alexandrova in straight units within the first spherical of the Australian Open final month and served higher than she did in straight-sets defeat to Marketa Vondrousova in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, however the Russian in the end proved too sturdy right here in the important thing moments on the onerous courts of Doha.
Along with her run of three consecutive round-one defeats coming quickly after a chastening 6-1 6-0 loss to Iga Swiatek within the third spherical in Melbourne, the 2021 US Open champion has now misplaced 4 matches in a row for the primary time in her profession.
The Brit began nicely on Sunday by breaking Alexandrova’s serve on the first time of asking, establishing an early 3-1 lead, however the Russian then hit straight again to take the following 5 video games and the primary set.
Regardless of breaking twice within the early exchanges of the second set to steer 3-1 once more, Raducanu couldn’t convert the benefit during the set and a decisive break for Alexandrova when tied at 5-5 made the distinction.
Raducanu has misplaced all three matches since Nick Cavaday stepped down as her coach for well being causes following the Australian Open.
The Doha end result signifies that Alexandrova, quite than Raducanu, will now face world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in Tuesday’s second spherical.
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