“I never really got into it” – Raducanu’s admission following bagel loss to Kalinina

Emma Raducanu admitted she struggled to get to grips with the conditions as she lost 6-0, 7-6 (6) to Anhelina Kalinina in Doha – only the second time in her professional career she has been on the receiving end of a bagel.

“To be honest, I felt like I never really got into it,” she said in her post-match interview. “I think it was a combination of things. It’s the first day match I’ve played in a year. That’s different. Honestly, I need to practise training outside a bit more because it’s very different. Also with the lights, conditions and shadows, it’s really hard to kind of see the ball towards the end.”

The former US Open champion is still on the comeback trail following a lengthy absence due to surgery on her wrists and left ankle.

However, some observers have called into question her preparation for the WTA 1000 event, suggesting that she would have been better served arriving in Doha earlier and having more time to adjust to the conditions. Instead, she opted to spend time in Dubai, and her Instagram posts show her at the opening of a luxury hotel, One&Only One Za’abeel.

Raducanu has yet to confirm her schedule for the upcoming weeks.

“I think I’m just going to go home and practise, and we’ll see where I go from there,” Raducanu said in quotes reported by The Times. “It’s hard for me to get used to the tour schedule. It’s just tournament back, tournament straight away, so I think that I need to schedule my tournaments a bit better, as well as just trying to get some more matches under my belt.”

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