Emma Raducanu has lost her crown as British No. 1 following her third-round exit at Wimbledon. The 22-year-old was beaten 7-6 6-4 by Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court, bowing out with plenty of credit after a solid tournament overall.
Raducanu beat Mingge Xu and Marketa Vondrousova by the same scoreline – 6-3 6-3 – en route to her clash with the world No. 1, but the British hopeful fell short and ultimately has fallen down the WTA rankings as a result.
The 2021 US Open winner has now dropped from world No. 40 to 45, falling beneath two of her British rivals as a result. Raducanu has therefore become British No. 3, behind both Katie Boulter (world No. 41) and Sonay Kartal (world No. 44).
Boulter exited Wimbledon prior to Raducanu’s defeat, though her first round victory over Paula Badosa earned her plenty of plaudits. She battled to a 6-2 3-6 6-4 win over the Spaniard, before then throwing away an early lead and being dumped out of the competition by Solana Sierra. Nevertheless, she has inherited the status as British No. 1.
Kartal was the most successful of the British women competing at SW19, reaching the round of 16. She beat Jelena Ostapenka in the first round before enjoying comfortable victories over Viktoriya Tomova and Diane Parry. Her bid to reach the quarter-finals then came to a halt when she was beaten by Anastasia Pavlyuchenko.
Raducanu will be keen to regain her status as Britain’s top women’s tennis star over the coming months, especially given how she found her defeat to Sabalenka ‘tough to take’. Tearfully speaking after the defeat, she said: “It’s hard to take a loss like that. At the same time, I’m playing Aryna, who is a great champion. I have to be proud of my effort.
“It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top.”
Raducanu will certainly be encouraged by Sabalenka’s praise of her in the Belarusian’s post-match interview too, saying: “She’s fighting. She’s playing much better. She’s more consistent. I can see that mentally she’s healthy. I think that’s really important. I’m pretty sure she’s getting there.” She later tipped Raducanu to return to the top 10 ‘soon’.
