Emma Raducanu showed a lack of willingness during her first round match at the Madrid Open, according to the head of her country’s Billie Jean King Cup team.
The former US Open champion suffered a comprehensive 6-2, 6-2, defeat to world No.82 María Lourdes Carlé. The loss is Raducanu’s heaviest of the season so far in terms of games won. In the first set alone, the Brit hit just two winners compared to 19 unforced errors. Overall, she won only 14% (2/14) of her second service points and 46% (12/26) of her first.
Reflecting on her performance afterwards, Raducanu admitted that she was feeling the effects of what has been a busy past couple of weeks. She helped her country beat France in the Billie Jean King Cup where she defeated Carolina Garcia. Then last week in Stuttgart she recorded two impressive victories over Angelique Kerber and Linda Noskova before losing in the quarter-finals to world No.1 Iga Swiatek.
“The last few weeks have been a lot. Starting from the Billie Jean King Cup, I haven’t stopped.” Said Raducanu, who was in Madrid without her coach Nick Cavaday.
“It’s just been back-to-back and I was very happy being able to help carry the team in the BJK Cup, then straight to Stuttgart with no rest, then straight here and trying to adapt to the conditions which are very different because it’s outdoors and I was playing indoors for the last month. Many factors have made it very difficult to fully compete today but overall I’ve been playing pretty well.”
Despite Raducanu’s upbeat outlook, others have taken a dimmer view towards her latest result with BJK captain Anne Keothavong saying she ‘made a meal of the match.‘ Speaking on Sky Sports, Keothavong questioned if it was the right decision for her compatriot to play in Madrid after she appeared to show a lack of commitment to playing.
“She touched on the fact, ‘Yes, I’m tired,’ The Times quoted Keothavong as saying. “She acknowledged that in her interview yesterday (Tuesday), but now when I look back, do you talk yourself into more tiredness? On one hand, it’s good to acknowledge it but on the other hand, if you’re going to go out there on the match court, you’ve got to be prepared to leave it all out there. That willingness just didn’t seem evident.
“Should she have taken the wild card this week? When the wild card is there, it’s a big event and for most players you are going to say, ‘Thank you very much, that’s a great opportunity.’ It’s a WTA 1000 and potentially big points on the board that will move her ranking from where it is at the moment [No 221].
“But when you see a player perform like that, you kind of question, ‘OK, maybe physically I wasn’t ready for it, mentally I wasn’t engaged and actually I probably could have done with the week off.’ Maybe in hindsight it would have been better to take this week off and go to play qualifying in Rome [the Italian Open starts next week].”
It is yet to be confirmed where Raducanu will be playing next. The Italian Open will get underway on May 7th but she will have to enter the qualifying draw with the use of her protected ranking unless organisers give her a wild card.
Heading into the second round of the Madrid Open, there is only one British woman left in the draw which is Katie Boulter who received a bye in the first round and will start against Robin Montgomery. In the men’s draw, Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie are still playing.
