Emma Raducanu pushes Aryna Sabalenka to the brink but just falls short at Cincinnati Open

Emma Raducanu came out on the losing end of a three-hour marathon against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the third round of the Cincinnati Open on Monday (12 August).

Raducanu did well to force a decider after narrowly dropping the first set but was eventually felled 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(5) in 3 hours, 9 minutes of tennis by the three-time Grand Slam champion.

The 39th-ranked Raducanu was coming off her first win with Rafael Nadal’s former coach Francisco Roig on her team, eliminating Olga Danilovic in the previous round.

Raducanu - who also on this day announced that she would appear at the Pan Pacific Open in Japan in October for her first time - and Sabalenka met for the second time this year following their heated third-round clash at Wimbledon, where Sabalenka prevailed in two sets.

Starting the match by winning eight straight points, Raducanu was up 5-4 in the opening frame but Sabalenka dug deep to force a tiebreak, turning the tables on the 2021 US Open winner to take the set.

Raducanu won her first career set against Sabalenka in the second, converting the lone break point of the set at 3-3 before closing the door with one of her 10 aces for the match.

The final set featured no breaks with the contest teetering back and forth yet in the end, Sabalenka showed her prowess with the game on the line by winning her 18th tiebreak of the season - the most-ever in a single year during the Open Era.

On the other hand Raducanu, unhelped by nine double faults, fell to 1-11 for her career against top five players. She actually won more points than Sabalenka for the match, 125 to 122.

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