Emma won despite appearing very stressed midway through the first set, some tears and lots of deep breathing during the changeover after losing 3 games in a row for *3-4. She won 12 out of the next 14 points, to take the opening set 6-4. Louisa handed Emma an early break with 4 errors in her opening service game. Raducanu with an ace in a love hold for 2-0*. Chirico then saved a bp with a volley winner after a drop shot, having got herself in trouble with 2 dfs earlier in the game. More forehand errors from Chirico allowed Raducanu to hold for 3-1* despite two poor forehand errors from Emma immediately after her serve. 

Louisa Chirico played lots of super tennis, several times her winning shots caught the outside of the line but she was guilty of gifting Raducanu plenty of points, some of them truly horrible errors, including a bounce smash that she incredibly put wide, as well as 8 dfs during the match. 3 impressive winners from Chirico in the game she broke the Raducanu serve yet 2 awful errors helped Emma dominate the end of the first set.

Early stages of the 2nd set were tight, both saved a bp with good play. Louisa's forehand drive volley got her out of trouble after 2 dfs. Emma with her own shocking smash into the net at 30-0 which produced a smile, she won the next point then lost 3 in a row before firing a forehand crosscourt winner to save bp. Then Louisa saved another 2 bps with sensational shots before handing Emma a break for *3-2. Raducanu with a super return that set up a forehand winner for a 2nd break in another game featuring 2 Chirico dfs. A delightful drop shot winner to finish the contest, Emma's 5th love hold of the match. 6-2.

Raducanu on the defensive during most of the rallies, with only the occasional attacking shot, typically backhand down the line. Her 2nd serve return was poor, started off trying to be aggressive but couldn't land her return in court, then went passive, initial groundstroke after her serve not that aggressive, though typically got away with it due to Louisa's errors. Nowhere near the standard of tennis she produced at the US Open, though she won by 23 points. First serve percentage 63.8% much lower than usual, winning 76.7% and an astonishing 76.5% behind her 2nd serve. 3 aces 0 dfs.

In her on court post match interview, Emma mentioned feeling very nervous and being proud that she had fought her way through it. It did look as though she might have been on the verge of spiralling out of control, similar to the Tomljanovic match at Wimbledon last year, during that one particular changeover. 

Her mum was watching, alongside regular hitting partner Raymond Sarmiento and trial coach Dmitry Tursunov.

-- Edited by kundalini on Wednesday 3rd of August 2022 05:05:41 AM

Doubles

L16:- Ingrid Gamarra Martins (BRA) v Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) CR457 (224+233) def Xinyun Han (CHN) / Lin Zhu (CHN) CR326 (91+235) 6-4 3-6 12-10 

the addict wrote:

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Doubles

L16:- Ingrid Gamarra Martins (BRA) v Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) CR457 (224+233) def Xinyun Han (CHN) / Lin Zhu (CHN) CR326 (91+235) 6-4 3-6 12-10 

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 That is heart warming news!

Julia Carrot wrote:

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Thanks for this report and insight.

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 It does sound a bit worrying though. Emma downplays feeling pressure in interviews but I'm not sure I believe her.

The melt down is interesting reading Twitter from usual suspects like Morgado or Rothenberg, or some of Brit press pack, its not mentioned at all. I think one does in passing.

As described though in the report above, it sounds very worrying to me?

Has anyone managed to watch any replays on Amazon Prime, they are all unavailable via my browsers at the moment?