By Yasmin Syed
Emma Raducanu suffered her first opening-round defeat of the year as she crashed out of the Qatar Open at the hands on Anhelina Kalinina. It was a slow start for the Brit, who was bagelled in the opening set before going out 6-0 7-6(6) in an hour and 38 minutes.
Raducanu had another tough test in the seventh match of her comeback as she drew world No. 30 Kalinina in Doha. The Brit received a late wildcard into the WTA 1000 event after her second-round defeat in Abu Dhabi.
But her time at the Qatar Open ended up being short-lived as Kalinina made light work of the world No. 262. Raducanu started the match with an ace but struggled to win more points as the Ukrainian stormed through the opening set, breaking her opponent three times.
Kalinina wrapped up a dominant first set 6-0 in just 23 minutes as Raducanu hit 15 unforced errors and won just five points on her own service games despite landing more first serves in the court. She continued to struggle in set two, immediately relinquishing another break with her third double fault of the match.
Raducanu finally got herself on the board with a break of serve to cancel out Kalinina's advantage in the second set. The 2021 US Open winner pumped her first as she placed a winner perfectly in the corner of the court to win her first game.
It was a turning point, as the British No. 7 began to raise her level, saving another break point to take a 2-1 lead. Raducanu majorly improved on her serve and fended off four more break points in the seventh game of the set. She finally succumbed to the 27-year-old in the 11th game, as Kalinina needed just one break point to give herself a chance to serve for the match.
But Raducanu wasn't done yet as she saved two match points to keep herself alive, forcing a tiebreak. The Brit took the first mini-break advantage but she quickly lost it with a double fault. Another mini-break gave Raducanu a set point on her own serve but she couldn't take it as the world No. 30 came out on top after a lengthy rally.
After having the set on her racket, Raducanu failed to win another point as Kalinina clinched a marathon 77-minute set and converted her third match point to set up a second-round meeting with No. 8 seed Jelena Ostapenko. It meant that Raducanu suffered a first-round defeat for the first time this year.
The Brit had been looking to improve on her run of three successive second-round losses but fell at the first hurdle in Doha. There were still some promising signs even though it was arguably the worst match of Raducanu's comeback so far, as she took too long to settle in and hit 48 unforced errors.
Ahead of the tournament, Raducanu said Nick Cavaday - her childhood coach who joined the team ahead of the Australian Open - had been trying to implement new things into her game. And it showed in what was a strong serving day for the Brit, who hit four aces and made 70 per cent of her first serves.
