Emma Raducanu suffers crushing defeat to Kostyuk in Cluj-Napoca

Emma Raducanu made a habit of smashing player during her US Open run but today she found herself on the other side of an impressive result getting beaten by Marta Kostyuk easily in Cluj-Napoca. Raducanu struggled in her first match in Romanian but proved much better in second one. Today was a bit of a mixed bag for the Brit who did not play too badly but the level of Kostyuk was too much for her.

The Ukrainian is a very talented player that is able to hit the ball very clearly on her day and today was that case. Raducanu is usually used to being the more aggressive player but today she got outplayed with her own game as the Ukrainian was simply hitting the ball more cleanly. The Brit did not have a good day serving as well as she committed 4 double faults in the first set alone.

All of that proved too much to overcome and Kostyuk raced to a 6-2 first set finish in only 31 minutes. It was not much better by Raducanu in the 2nd set as her play was all over the place. She was overhitting balls, being late on balls, not serving very well. That allowed Kostyuk to take a 4-1 lead rather quickly and it became clear Raducanu is nearing a loss.

Kostyuk had her first match points at 5-1 in the match when Raducanu served and while the Brit was able to serve a few and almost won another game the score ended up being 6-1 for Kostyuk in the set. By far the worst defeat for Raducanu in her young career but it will serve her as a good lesson.