The clay progress of Emma Raducanu hit a wall with the former Grand Slam champion knocked out by a qualifier at the Madrid Masters and the former US Open winner blaming fatigue for her performance.
The No. 221 Raducanu, whose form as collapsed winning winning the New York title three years ago lost 6-2, 6-2 in her opening Madrid match to Argentine qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle.
It was the second career win at the WTA level for the No. 82 on Wednesday. And she explained that her brutal schedule and the absence of her coach took a toll.
Raducanu’s latest coach Nick Cavaday was also missing from the player box during the debacle; she was coming off an encouraging run of four straight wins followed by a good effort in Stuttgart against world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
“The last few weeks have been a lot,” Raducanu said. “Starting from Billie Jean King Cup, I haven’t stopped.
“It’s just been back-to-back and I was very happy being able to help carry the team in BJK Cup and then straight to Stuttgart with no rest and 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 that have made it very difficult to fully compete today but overall I’ve been playing pretty well.”
Raducanu now has a pause before the early May start of the Rome Masters, last major stop before Roland Garros begins on May 26.
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