Britain’s Emma Raducanu suffered a disappointing defeat to world number 101 Cristina Bucsa of Spain in the opening round of the Singapore Open.
The 22-year-old was playing for the first time since her 6-1 6-0 third round loss to Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open and the news her coach Nick Cavaday was stepping back from the role to “prioritise getting back to full health”.
But in a gruelling encounter lasting three hours and three minutes and featuring 17 breaks of service, Bucsa came through 5-7 7-5 7-5 against the seventh seed in the pair’s first meeting.
The Spaniard had served for the opening set at 5-4 up but Raducanu, ranked 56, rattled off the next three games to take control of the match.
The second set started with three consecutive breaks of service to leave Bucsa 3-1 and then 4-2 up but Raducanu continued to battle and another run of three games in a row saw her go 5-4 up but Bucsa responded with the next three games to level the match.
Both players struggled to hold serve in the decider but although a weary-looking Raducanu dug deep to edge 5-4 ahead, Bucsa held and then broke her opponent at a crucial time to leave her serving for the match.
The British number two saved a couple of match points but Bucsa, the Olympic women’s doubles bronze medallist, quickly earned another and this time Raducanu netted.
Bucsa will next face either Sijia Wei of China or Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand in the last 16.
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