Britain’s Emma Raducanu failed to repeat her Wimbledon heroics as she returned to the court with a straight-sets loss in the first round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.
Playing in her first match since her memorable SW19 run ended a month ago, the 18-year-old crashed out with a 6-3, 6-2 loss to China’s 51st-ranked Zhang Shuai.
Raducanu dazzled on the grass at Wimbledon this year, becoming the youngest-British woman to make the last 16 of the tournament in the Open era. However, she retired in the second set against Ajla Tomljanovic due to breathing difficulty, later saying the “whole experience caught up with me”.
Raducanu, whose ranking leapt from 338 to 175 as a result of her Wimbledon run, has since switched coaches, moving from the experienced Nigel Sears to the less well-known Andrew Richardson, the former head coach at the Bromley Tennis Centre in south-east London.
Her first assault on the US hardcourt season began disappointingly, however, with her 32-year-old opponent winning in an hour and 22 minutes.
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Crucially, Raducanu won only five of 22 points on her second serve for the match, while Zhang won nine of 16.
The Briton made only 65 per cent of first serves in the opening set to Zhang’s 89.7 per cent, and faced six break points against her serve. She fought hard to save four of them, but was ultimately overpowered by Zhang, who saved one of two break points against her own serve.
Raducanu improved her first serve percentage slightly to 70 per cent in the second set while Zhang’s dropped to just 52 per cent. But the Chinese again set up up six break points and converted twice, while staving off the two chances Raducanu had to break her serve.
Zhang will now play third-seeded American Madison Keys in the round of 16.
