Emma Raducanu’s tough education in her maiden WTA Tour season continued on Thursday as she served for the match in her Miami Open debut and stood within two points of victory against Katerina Siniakova but failed to take any of her ample opportunities, eventually suffering a bitter 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 loss in the second round.
As Raducanu stumbled, Heather Watson pieced together one of her biggest wins in many years, grinding through a gruelling third set and demonstrating ample resilience by defeating Elina Svitolina, the 15th seed, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) to reach the third round.
For Raducanu, the 11th seed, her defeat played out in remarkably similar fashion to her loss in the Indian Wells third round two weeks ago. Raducanu was dominant throughout the first half of the match, controlling the majority of exchanges from inside the baseline, taking the ball early off both wings and attacking freely as she established a 6-3, 3-1 lead.
But Raducanu has struggled to play at a consistent, high intensity throughout an entire match this year. In most of her matches so far, including on Thursday, she has started extremely well, only for her intensity, serve and ball speeds to slow down. At the top level of professional tennis, opponents will always be ready to pounce.
From a set and a break down, Siniakova, ranked 53rd in singles and the doubles world No 1, quickly worked herself into the match. After recovering the break, she ended the set close to the baseline and cranking up the pace of her forehand.
Raducanu did not relinquish the match without some admirable fight, however, and she reeled off three games in a row just as the match seemed to be slipping away at 2-3, 15-30 in the third set. As in her Indian Wells loss to Petra Martic, she served for the match at 5-4 but she could not hold her nerve. After netting an easy forehand at 30-30, Raducanu struck her only double fault of the match on break point. Once again, Raducanu ended the match by conceding three consecutive games and her Czech opponent moved on.
With her hard-court season at an end, Raducanu will now head to the clay and she is scheduled to start by leading Great Britain in their Billie Jean King Cup tie against Siniakova’s Czech Republic. More firsts await Raducanu as, if she plays, it will mark her Billie Jean King Cup debut and a first ever professional match on clay.
Meanwhile, Watson’s hard fought victory over Svitolina marks her first top 20 win since January 2020 and her 10th in 52 career matches against the top 20. It has come at a most opportune moment.
After a tough 18 months following the Covid hiatus in 2020, Watson recently fell out of the top 100. Her two victories now put her on the verge of returning to the top 100 and she will next face either Belinda Bencic or Marta Kostyuk.
Earlier in the day, Naomi Osaka easily outplayed Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3, producing her best performance and victory in over a year.
Against a fellow former No 1 and multiple grand slam champion, Osaka controlled the match from the beginning, serving extremely well and completely overpowering Kerber to register her first top-15 victory since winning the 2021 Australian Open.
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As Osaka bounces back from a well-publicised setback in Indian Wells two weeks ago, during which she was tearful after being heckled by a fan, she said that the incident convinced her to see a therapist for the first time, who has provided her with strategies to manage her emotions during her matches.
The move was spurred by her concerned sister, Mari, after Indian Wells and she has received support from her coach, Wim Fissette: “Wim kind of put it in a really good way. He was like, you hire a coach for tennis, for fitness. The mind is such a big thing. If you can, like, get a professional to help you out 0.5%, that alone is worth it,” said Osaka.
