Emma Raducanu loses to Ons Jabeur at Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi

A match that was supposed to happen last year happened this year instead and it saw Emma Raducanu make a return but it was not triumphant as she lost to Jabeur 7-5 3-6 8-10.

Raducanu has not played since Ostrava because she injured her wrist which forced her to abandon any plans of playing for the rest of the year. She dedicated herself to fitness and spent two months building her body and getting ready for the upcoming season. It was important for her because she had far too many injuries during this campaign.

It paid off today as the Brit looked far more physically ready for the matchup against Jabeur with her tennis looking pretty good as well. Confident as always, Raducanu was able to strike the ball cleanly and picked her spots really well. She was also more consistent on her serve which was a good bonus to have.

Raducanu trailed to start to match but came back after getting into a nice rhythm. She would outplay Jabeur down the stretch and take the set 7-5. In the second one, we saw Jabeur make a comeback by playing a bit sharper and ultimately taking it 6-3. The final set featured a match tiebreak with the winner being Jabeur who rallied from 5-7 down to take it 10-8.