Emma Raducanu’s attempt at a miraculous recovery against Maya Joint fell just short as she lost in the second round at Eastbourne.
The British No 1 looked dead and buried in her battle with the Australian, 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 she got a mini-break to lead 4-3 but the 19-year-old 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 first- round win that she had received “some pretty bad news” and that perhaps affected her as she seemed subdued on court and looked increasingly leggy in the third set. The 22-year-old will now head to London where she will prepare for Wimbledon, the scene of her 2021 breakthrough.
She lost the opening two games of the match but battled back to gain control, breaking twice to take the opening set 6-4. Then things started to go wrong as Joint, ranked 51 in the world, found her groove and won 11 out of the next 14 games to put herself on the verge of victory.
But 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 to give and Joint recomposed herself to break Raducanu and serve for the match for the third time at 6-5.
But Raducanutook 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 161, 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, the lucky loser Billy Harris continued to take advantage of his reprieve, winning 6-3, 6-4 against Mattia Bellucci.