Emma Raducanu says she needs to get her “head in the game” before Wimbledon starts on Monday after falling just short of a comeback against the Australian teenager Maya Joint at Eastbourne.
The British No 1 looked dead and buried in her battle with the youngster, trailing 5-2 in the deciding set. But she produced an inspired spell, breaking Joint three times when she was serving for the match to set up a tie-break.
Victory was in sight when Raducanu got a mini-break to lead 4-3 but her 19-year-old opponent reeled off four successive points to claim a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory and move into the quarter-finals.
Raducanu revealed on Tuesday after her emotional first-round win over Ann Li – another fightback, after which she cried on court – that she had received “some pretty bad news” and she referenced this again after her defeat without elaborating on what the bad news was.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t get over the line today but I can get some rest ahead of next week,” she said. “I feel quite tired. Just going through some stuff and I need to do my best to get my head in the game ahead of next week,” she told the BBC. “Realistically, the turnaround is pretty soon – it’s only four days away really that Wimbledon starts.
“I think I’m just going to start with [a day off] tomorrow and then hopefully I can get on the court on Friday.”
Raducanu lost the opening two games of the match but battled back to gain control, breaking serve twice to take the opening set 6-4. Then things started to go wrong as Joint, ranked No 51 in the world, found her groove and won 11 out of the next 14 games to put herself on the verge of victory.
However, Raducanu sensed nerves. She broke on Joint’s first attempt to serve it out and then, after holding her own serve, did it again to level at 5-5. A see-saw contest continued and Joint recomposed herself to break Raducanu and serve for the match for the third time at 6-5.
But Raducanu took it into a tie-break before Joint steeled herself again, winning four consecutive points and sealing it with an ace.
Joint said: “Today was really tough, there was a lot of ups and downs. I was happy I was able to tough it out at the end. I am really glad I was able to win this match.”
Jodie Burrage become the second Briton in two days to fail to convert match points against the current Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova.
Twenty-four hours after Harriet Dart spurned her chances, Burrage, the world No 164, was 40-0 up on the Czech’s serve at 6-5 in the deciding set, but she could not get over the line, with Krejcikova winning the tie-break.
In the men’s draw, Dan Evans’ recent upturn in form continued with a standout win over world No 13 Tommy Paul. The 35-year-old is trying to find his way back to the top of the game after slumping down the ranking and results like this will help. He ousted the No 2 seed 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to set up a quarter-final tie with American Jenson Brooksby.
Lucky loser Billy Harris continued to take advantage of his reprieve, winning 6-3, 6-4 against Mattia Bellucci, but British No 2 Jacob Fearnley is out, losing 6-3, 6-1 to Marcos Giron.
