“Do you want me to kick the child out?”: Emma Raducanu clashes with chair umpire during Cincinnati Open defeat to Aryna Sabalenka

Britain’s Emma Raducanu arguably produced one of the best performances of her season on Monday. However, the performance did not end on a positive note as she suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the third round of the Cincinnati Open against the world number one Aryna Sabalenka. The final score of the match was 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. The match lasted more than three hours.

It was Raducanu’s second consecutive defeat to Sabalenka in the space of two months. At Wimbledon, Raducanu lost to the same opponent in the third round as well. In that contest, Sabalenka came out on top in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-4.

Even though Raducanu’s performance on the night was appreciated by the spectators as well as her opponent, the 22-year-old might remember the night for a different reason. Raducanu faced an awkward moment in the deciding set when she was serving to make it 4-4. The British number one was having a hard time concentrating on the court because of a crying child in the stands.

Raducanu had enough of it and asked the umpire for the removal of the child after being frustrated because of the whole incident. “It’s been 10 minutes,” said Raducanu while asking the chair umpire to take some action regarding the child. “It’s a child. Do you want me to kick the child out of the stadium?,” was the response of the umpire which did not leave Raducanu impressed. The umpire further went on to encourage both players to continue playing by stating: “I can call in, but we need to continue for the moment."

Later, a section of the crowd supported Raducanu’s point of view about the request to remove the child, something which left the former US Open winner smiling as well. The game lasted more than 20 minutes and had 13 deuces, but Raducanu managed to keep her nerves and went on to make it 4-4.