(Reuters) – U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu was pressured to retire with a left hip injury in the deciding set of her opening match towards Australia’s Daria Saville on Tuesday in the WTA 250 match in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The 19-year-old from Britain was taking part in her first match since final month’s painful exit in the second spherical of the Australian Open, when a blistered racket hand contributed to a three-set defeat by Danka Kovinic.
The British participant was two factors from victory on the Abierto Akron Zapopan towards former world quantity 20 Saville, who has slipped to 610 in the rankings after present process surgical procedure on her Achilles tendon final yr.
Serving for the match at 7-5 5-3 Raducanu failed to shut out the sport with the Australian combating again to stage the competition at 1-1 in the tiebreaker.
Both ladies suffered bodily in the course of the deciding set, with Saville battling leg cramps whereas the Twelfth-ranked Raducanu went off the courtroom for a medical timeout.
Raducanu returned with her higher left leg closely taped and after two extra video games determined to stop with Saville main 5-7 7-6(4) 4-3 after three hours and 36 minutes – the longest WTA match of the season.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; enhancing by Shri Navaratnam)
