Emma RADUCANU's clay court form comes to shuddering halt at Madrid Open, dumped out by Maria Lourdes Carle

Emma Raducanu came into the Madrid Open off the back of good form both at the Billie Jean King Cup and Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Stuttgart. But she hit a brick wall and was dumped out in the opening round of the Madrid Open in a setback for the former US Open champion.

She faced a dangerous proposition in Maria Lourdes Carle who despite having to come through qualifying is up to a career high recently at the age of 24 and has been starring in particular on the WTA 125k circuit. So despite on paper, Raducanu looking like she had an easy tie, it was anything but. But in a 6-2, 6-2 loss, it was a horror show at times from Raducanu.

Originally facing Karolina Pliskova, she suddenly had to take on the qualifier with Veronika Kudermetova awaiting the winner and it looked like a good run and decent chance for the Brit. But she was roundly trounced in just under an hour and a half. Raducanu won only 13/26 1st serves and 2/14 on her second serve in a true illustration of how poor she was in this display. Heading onto Roland Garros with a Rome wildcard very much unlikely, it is very much back to the drawing board and quickly. Similar to her loss to Kalinina in Doha, it will be one she will be looking to forget.

In the opening set, she lost her serve in three out of four service games and had chances to break and even did so at 3-1 down. But it was very much the Carle show and the Raducanu horror show. In the second, it was a similar story with Raducanu unable to hold her serve and Carle served it out with ease at 6-2 to claim the win and move on.