Emma Raducanu fell to a 6-0, 6-2 defeat Saturday afternoon in her first final since she won the 2021 U.S. Open as a qualifier.
A relentless Sorana Cirstea, playing in front of her home fans at the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, took full advantage of a flat performance from the Briton, who received a blood-pressure check during the second set and looked physically out-of-sorts from late in the first set.
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Cirstea, 35, who is also playing her final season on tour, looked to attack Raducanu as early as possible on both serve and return, becoming even more intense as Raducanu began to fade physically towards the end of the opening set. The Briton double-faulted on game point four times across the match and made numerous errors on her first shot after her serve, unable to use promising positions to win quick points.
Raducanu had shown admirable resilience throughout the tournament, coming back from 0-5 down to beat Kaja Juvan in the round of 16 and toughing out a three-set win against Oleksandra Oliynykova’s array of moonballing, sudden changes of pace and sharp angles. But Cirstea was a match too far, for her tennis and for her physical condition. The final never became a contest, even when Raducanu was able to produce a break of serve from almost nowhere early in the second set.
Earlier in the day, Czech qualifier Sara Bejlek stunned world No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6(5), 6-1 to win the Abu Dhabi Open. Bejlek, 20, who started the tournament as world No. 101, will rise to No. 38 when the rankings update on Monday.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
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