Emma Raducanu on Monday refused to be too downcast after suffering an opening-round exit at the Singapore Open when the British seventh seed lost 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 to 101st-ranked Cristina Bucsa.
Raducanu earlier this month progressed to the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career before losing to five-time Grand Slam champion and Polish second seed Iga Swiatek.
Having dealt with a string of injuries since capturing the 2021 US Open, her only major, Raducanu went down in Singapore after a 3 hour, 3 minute battle against her Spanish opponent, but the 22-year-old was happy with the way she handled herself following the end of her partnership with coach Nick Cavaday, who stepped back from the role last week to prioritize getting back to full health.
Photo: AFP
“I have the positives [from] this week, coming here on my own with Yutaka and my mum, but I’m really proud of how I dealt and handled myself this week,” she told ESPN after the match, referring to her fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura.
“I feel OK. I feel like I have certain things we all manage as the year goes on. I think it’s pretty early in the season,” she said. “For me to be playing this kind of match, all I need is time on court and a match-competitive situation, which I got today. I got it in abundance — over three hours of it — so, for me, it’s really valuable because every match I play, I feel like it’s a win, and I fought really hard. I gave everything. So I just got to keep building and moving on.”
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