Raducanu out of Madrid, beaten by Kalinina

Emma Raducanu fought bravely but back issues were too much to overcome against a very strong Kalinina in a 2-6 6-2 4-6 loss.

The British player did not enter the match well at all missing a lot of balls while trying to play aggressively. Kalinina played very well. She served well, she hit the ball really well and limited the number of mistakes she made. It was more than enough for the first set 6-2. Raducanu took a MTO for a back issue and after returning she found a Kalinina who was out of rhythm.

The player from Ukraine never quite found it in the 2nd set as she committed quite a few mistakes against Raducanu who upped the aggressiveness. Not only that, she hit the ball rather well compared to the 2nd set and that was enough to cruise 6-2 in the 2nd set.

The final set was a proper battle between the two players as both had moments of brilliance. Raducanu fell behind early thanks to some bad mistakes and generally poor decision making. It's something that plagued her throughout the match against Kalinina who knows all the tricks on clay. Eventually, Raducanu did battle back and made it 4-3.

She tried to jump ahead but Kalinina hung on to make it 4-4 and then broke Raducanu for the 5-4 lead. Emma messed up as she was up 30-0 in that game. Kalinina then finished it off with 6-4 saving a break point in the process.