Emma Raducanu suffered her first opening-round loss at the French Open with an error-strewn display against Argentina’s Solana Sierra.
The British number one opted to return to action for the final couple of weeks of the clay season following two-and-a-half months out with a post-viral illness instead of concentrating on grass but it has not paid off.
She took positives from a narrow loss to Diane Parry in Strasbourg earlier this week, and she at least improved in the second set at a sun-baked Roland Garros before falling to a 6-0 7-6 (4) defeat.
It is only Raducanu’s third time playing in the tournament but this was the first occasion she has failed to make it to the second round.
The first set was a horror show, with Raducanu spraying the ball to all parts of the small court 13 and losing it to love in just 25 minutes.
A tally of no winners and 15 unforced errors told its own story, with Raducanu’s US Open-winning coach Andrew Richardson, with whom she reunited earlier this week, unable to inspire the same sort of magic.
Sierra is a very capable player on clay in particular but is ranked only 68, well below Raducanu’s mark of 39, and is playing in just her sixth Grand Slam event.
Raducanu looked like she could be heading for one of the worst defeats of her career when she trailed 4-1 in the second set but she began to find a foothold in the match, elongating the rallies and drawing errors from her opponent.
After pulling it back to 4-3, Raducanu bent double at the change of ends and coughed into her towel – a legacy of the illness that first affected her in early February and which she has still not quite shaken off.
But she showed grit to pull level at 5-5 and then break the Sierra serve when she served for the match to force a tie-break.
Sierra raced into a 5-1 lead, though, and this time Raducanu could not pull it back, with her final tally of 42 unforced errors simply far too many.
The 23-year-old will now hope she can stay healthy and find her groove on the grass, where she has normally played well.
Elsewhere, Fran Jones earned a long-awaited first Grand Slam victory at the French Open.
The 25-year-old has had a torrid year, with a leg injury and concussion keeping her off the court and pushing her back outside the top 100, and she could not contain her emotions after battling from a set down to defeat former semi-finalist Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6 7-6 (4) 6-2 at a sweltering Roland-Garros.
