Emma Raducanu suffered a tough setback as she tried to re-establish her form and rhythm during her return from injury and paid dearly for a poor start, 6-0, 7-6 ( 6) Lost to world number 30 Anhelina Kalinina. First round of Qatar Open.
The 262nd-ranked Raducanu arrived in Doha for the second leg of a new Middle East tour after a largely positive performance in Abu Dhabi last week. She advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-1 win over No. 36 Marie Bouzkova, one of her best wins since the start of 2023. However, as expected, she was then defeated by No. 6 Ons Jabeur. second round.
Facing an extremely strong opponent in slow, windy conditions in Doha, Raducanu was completely uncomfortable from the start. The 21-year-old struggled to find her range, and her number of unforced errors quickly increased as Kalinina chased down large numbers of balls, lengthened exchanges and outscored her opponents on the baseline. The Ukrainian easily won the first set, making only 2 unforced errors, while Raducanu had 15 unforced errors.
The second set started in a similar manner, with Raducanu double faulting on the break point to fall behind 0-6, 0-1. But she’s finally slowly starting to find her footing, forcing herself into the baseline and looking to pass the ball down the wings early and control exchanges. After an immediate break of serve, Raducanu found a rhythm in his serve and even held his ground at 3-3 in a brutal service game, settling it all with four baseline winners and an ace. Five break points.
Raducanu’s recovery seemed to come to an abrupt end as she had a poor, error-laden game on serve at 5-5, allowing Carinina to break at 6-5 before claiming double match point. Instead, after Karinina made a mistake on the first match point, the Briton saved the second with a forehand baseline winner and broke serve in the final seconds to force a tiebreak. Raducanu then held set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but Karinina defeated her challenger in a series of exciting and lengthy encounters, and finally sealed the victory with three points.
What started off as a disastrous performance at least ended with a decent fight from Raducanu. She hit the ball beautifully at times in the second set and was by far the cleanest, more powerful hitter. But this level requires more point-by-point consistency and fewer mistakes, especially from her inconsistent forehand wing.
Finding a rhythm after a long layoff is extremely difficult and often takes time, but Raducanu’s schedule upon returning to action is intriguing. Rather than starting over and trying to rebuild his form at a lower level, such as last week’s WTA 250 event in Cluj, the Briton has chosen to enter major events with extremely high standards with a wild card. Even if she beats Kalinina, in-form eighth seed Jelena Ostapenko is likely to beat her in the second round.
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Last year, Elina Svitolina was named WTA Comeback Player of the Year to end the 2023 season. Although Svitolina has established herself as a top player for longer than the 2021 U.S. Open champion, she is willing to return to the ITF Tour after her maternity leave to try to find her feet. A key result came at the WTA 250 event in Strasbourg, where she won without facing any top 40 opponents. Winning matches against weaker opponents gave her the confidence to take her game to the best. For Raducanu, even if she played well, the quality of her opponent made it difficult for her to establish any lasting rhythm.
Changes to the WTA schedule have certainly made it more difficult to compete in lower-tier events. While ATP players can choose between three tournaments each week in February and seven ATP 250 tournaments will be held this month, the WTA’s calendar now prioritizes larger events. This week, the WTA 1000-level Qatar Open is the only event on the WTA, with only two WTA 250-level events this month. Raducanu may be hoping for another wild card into next week’s WTA 1000 event in Dubai, where she will face a similar challenge against the best players in the world.
