LINZ, AUSTRIA (AFP) – US Open champion Emma Raducanu was knocked out of the WTA event in Linz on Tuesday (Nov 9), losing her second round match 6-1, 6-7 (0/7), 7-5 to world number 106 Wang Xinyu.
The 18-year-old top seed Raducanu, who is expected to announce Torben Beltz as her new coach, stunned the tennis world in September when she became the first qualifier ever to win a major.
Playing in just her third tournament since her Flushing Meadows success, the British teenager, now ranked 20 in the world, struggled from the start against the 20-year-old Chinese who galloped through the first set as Raducanu struggled with her service game.
The Briton was far from her most fluent in the second set but made short work of Wang in the tie-break which she took to love.
Wang, however, stayed with her in the decider, breaking to go 5-4 up and serve for the match. After two further breaks, Wang again served for the match, this time closing it out after two hours and 36 minutes on court.
Wang now faces American eighth seed Alison Riske in the quarter-finals after her 6-4, 6-4 win over Alize Cornet.
It marked another bad day of the office for Raducanu who has been without a coach since parting company with Andrew Richardson shortly after her triumph in New York.
British media reported on Tuesday that Beltz, 44, who previously coached former world number one Angelique Kerber during her successful 2016 Australian Open and 2016 US Open campaigns, was set to take over the role.
The German has also worked with Croatia’s Donna Vekic.
Second seed Simona Halep, who missed this year’s French Open and Wimbledon due to a left calf tear, eased into the last eight with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.