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Britain’s Emma Raducanu suffered a disappointing defeat to world number 101 Cristina Bucsa of Spain in the opening round of the Singapore Open.<\/b><\/p>\n
The 22-year-old was playing for the first time since her 6-1 6-0 third round loss to Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open and the news her coach Nick Cavaday was stepping back from the role<\/a> to “prioritise getting back to full health”.<\/p>\n But in a gruelling encounter lasting three hours and three minutes and featuring 17 breaks of service, Bucsa came through 5-7 7-5 7-5 against the seventh seed in the pair’s first meeting.<\/p>\n The Spaniard had served for the opening set at 5-4 up but Raducanu, ranked 56, rattled off the next three games to take control of the match.<\/p>\n The second set started with three consecutive breaks of service to leave Bucsa 3-1 and then 4-2 up but Raducanu continued to battle and another run of three games in a row saw her go 5-4 up but Bucsa responded with the next three games to level the match.<\/p>\n Both players struggled to hold serve in the decider but although a weary-looking Raducanu dug deep to edge 5-4 ahead, Bucsa held and then broke her opponent at a crucial time to leave her serving for the match.<\/p>\n The British number two saved a couple of match points but Bucsa, the Olympic women’s doubles bronze medallist, quickly earned another and this time Raducanu netted.<\/p>\n Bucsa will next face either Sijia Wei of China or Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand in the last 16.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n