Emma Raducanu dealt Wimbledon blow as Brit dire in Stuttgart defeat

Emma Raducanu suffered another early exit as she crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in the first round. The world No 68 looked flat as she suffered a one-sided 6-2 6-1 defeat at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko in under an hour. It means she will lose 100 ranking points – a blow in her hopes of being ranked high enough to make the main draw of Wimbledon.

Raducanu was facing Ostapenko for the second time after being forced to retire injured in the third set of their Seoul semi-final clash last September. The Brit received a brutal draw, taking on a fellow Grand Slam champion with the winner meeting third seed Ons Jabeur in the second round.

The 20-year-old started slow in her first match since suffering a first-round exit in Miami. After holding serve to open the contest, Raducanu was broken with a return winner from the tricky world No 22.

The US Open champion went on to lose five games in a row as she was broken for a second time, getting in one last service hold for the set before Ostapenko took it 6-2 in 30 minutes. The 25-year-old hit 14 winners to just three from Raducanu, who looked flat compared to the heavy-hitting Latvian.

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It was a better start in the second set from the top-ranked Brit, who won the first five points in a row to hold and take a 0-30 lead. But Ostapenko fired back as she held serve and broke Raducanu to love.

And the 2017 French Open champion continued to follow the pattern of the first set as she went a double-break up. Raducanu carved out her first break point of the match whole 1-4 down but couldn’t convert, losing five games in a row again. And Ostapenko kept going, setting up a match point on the Brit’s serve to close out the match in just 58 minutes.

Raducanu was defending the quarter-finals in Stuttgart after reaching the last-eight on her debut last year. With her first-round defeat, she will now lose 100 of her 839 ranking points.

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There will now be pressure for the 20-year-old to keep defending her points up until May 22 – the cut-off for the Wimbledon entry deadline. According to The Times, the Brit needs around 650 ranking points to make it into the main draw off of her own ranking.

And it will be a tough task for Raducanu to keep trying to retain her standing in the rankings, as she defends another 120 points at the upcoming Madrid WTA 1000.

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