Emma Raducanu suffered her third first-round tournament defeat inside two weeks as she lost 6-3 7-5 to Ekaterina Alexandrova at the Qatar Open.
The 22-year-old Briton had been handed her second successive wildcard for the WTA’s latest tournament in the Middle East but was handed a tough draw against the Russian world No 25, who was fresh from winning the Linz Open last week.
Raducanu had beaten Alexandrova in the first round of the Australian Open last month but the Russian ultimately proved too strong here.
The Brit started strongly in both sets with early breaks of serve but Alexandrova soon cancelled out Raducanu’s advantage each time.
Alexandrova won the final five games of the first set and, after trading breaks of serve in the second, a decisive break when tied at 5-5 made the decisive difference.
The result means that Alexandrova, rather than Raducanu, will now face world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in Tuesday’s second round.
More to follow…
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