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RADUCANU LOSES BATTLE OFTHE BLISTER

» MURRAY BEATEN IN STRAIGHT SETS WHILE RADUCANU STRUGGLES WITH HAND BLISTER ON HER WAY TO DEFEAT

Matt Majendie

Danka and good night: Emma Raducanu crashed out of the Australian Open today after losing a battle with blisters on her right hand. The teenager was defeated by Danka Kovinic

ON NEIGHBOURING courts at theAustralian Open, the old and new of British tennis both succumbed to the same fate deep into the Melbourne night.

First, Andy Murray, appearing at his 14th Australian Open, was knocked out in straight sets by Taro Daniel. Then tournament debutant Emma Raducanu, seemingly curtailed by heavy blisters on her right hand, bowed out in three tight sets to Danka Kovinic 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

And so a day which begun with high expectations ended with just one Briton left in either main draw. Dan Evans’ passage into the third round came without a ball being struck as his opponent, Arthur Rinderknech, pulled out before the match, while HeatherWatson joined Raducanu in exiting as she lost 7-6, 6-4 to No29 seed Tamara Zidansek.

Murray is no stranger to Australian Open heartache and, three years after his last appearance in Melbourne, his tournament came to a premature end.

Five times a beaten finalist, Murray stepped off court in 2019 after a firstround defeat thinking his career was quite conceivably at an end.

Rebuilt and having seeminglyregained his best form since, there were high hopes for Murray after knocking out Nikoloz Basilashvili in the opening round. Quite how much that five-set marathon took out of the Briton is unclear, but his movement was a little off today, andwhile he promised at times to move into the ascendancy against qualifier Daniel, in the end it proved a straight-sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat.

Any hopes that Raducanu had of repeating her fairytale in NewYork were eroded as her blister issue meant she was unable to consistently unleash her usually aggressive game plan of heavy-hitting groundstrokes.

The 19-year-old did well to stay in the match for so long, varying her shots to good effect at points and showing resolve to fight through the pain but, with her most potent weapons seemingly nullified by the ailment, she was unable to force her way past the Montenegran on Margaret Court Arena. It proved a bizarre opening set, as Raducanu resumed with the same aggressive approach she had used in her opening match against Sloane Stephens and raced into a 3-0 lead.

Having broken her opponent’s opening two service games, the match turned as Kovinic broke back in game four courtesy of a string of positive groundstrokes and raced 5-3 ahead. Raducanu stopped the rot for a game before Kovinic served out the set.

Set two again began in Raducanu’s favour, as she immediately broke and, improvising for her damaged hand, mixed up her shots well to move ahead 3-1 against a playerwho had never made it past the second round of a Grand Slam. In the end, it was Raducanu who moved into the ascendancy with another late break and served out for the set despite being taken to deuce.

Neither player seemed able to hold serve in a tense deciding set but when it counted the more experienced player held on for the win.

Earlier, Murray had looked evenly matched on paper — 113th in the world to his Japanese opponent’s 120th — and yet the expectation was he would come out on top, as much down to his past glories (the three Grand Slam titles and two Olympic titles) than the actual reality of the situation.

This had all the hallmarks of the customary Murray self-flagellation: the

mumbling, grumbling and taking umbrage with both his racket and his coaching team at various points. But, in truth, he was outplayed for the duration of the match. Even late into the contest, when Daniel looked physically exhausted, he still managed to reach into his reserves to keep Murray at bay.

There was no denying who was the crowd favourite from the outset, but throughout Daniel did the basics well. He moved into the ascendancy as he broke Murray in a marathon 11-minute third game of the match. Murray forced his way back into the match to level at three apiece, only to be broken straight back on a double fault. Daniel then rounded off the set with an ace.

Set two ended in exactly the same fashion, leaving Murraywith a mountain to climb. Since his comeback, he haswon just one of the four Grand Slam matches in which he lost the opening set.

For a time, a comeback looked on the cards, the spectators, Murray’s box and the player himself willing him to do so.

But he was not quite able to muster the big points when it mattered, nor cement his advantage when the breaks came. Having worked so hard to get himself back in the match, he was duly broken back courtesy of a double fault.

Such was the frustration for Murray, he received a code violation for throwing his racket when he was broken for a second time in the set after which Daniel coolly served for the match.

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2022-01-20T08:00:00.0000000Z

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