- Emma Raducanu went in search of a first Wimbledon quarter-final on Sunday
- She withdrew from mixed doubles with Andy Murray due to wrist ‘soreness’
- Raducanu started shaky against qualifier Lulu Sun and was eventually beaten
Emma Raducanu‘s Wimbledon dream was crushed on Centre Court by New Zealand qualifier Lulu Sun – who is in only her second ever Grand Slam.
A worrying medical time-out at the start of the third set, where Raducanu received treatment on her back and her right ankle, caused concern from a partisan home crowd and their electric support was not enough to will her over the line as Sun, who was reduced to tears at the end, won 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
Sun, who faces Donna Vekic in the last eight, is looking to emulate Raducanu and become only the second qualifier ever to go on and win a Grand Slam, after the Brit made history at the 2021 US Open.
‘It was a great match against Emma and she really dug deep,’ Sun said. ‘I obviously had to fight tooth and nail to beat her as she’s going to run for every ball. I don’t even have the words now.’
She added: ‘While walking towards Centre Court I thought, “wow, I’ve never seen this”. I was taking it in for the first time and I’m just super happy to play on this court in front of all of you. It’s such an amazing experience for me.’
While this was the greatest moment of Sun’s young career, this was a hugely disappointing afternoon for Raducanu, who went into the match-up as a heavy favourite.
Raducanu started far too slowly but she ignited the match by breaking at 6-5 in the second set to set up a winner-takes-all decider.
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But there was immediate concern in the opening game of the final set on her serve when Raducanu slipped on the surface and appeared to damage her right ankle.
She sat up on the court and immediately called for the physio in worrying scenes, having just swung the momentum in the match in her favour.
Returning out of the medical time-out, Raducanu was stretched and Sun won three straight points to land a decisive break, which set the tone as the Brit was never able. to recover it.
The Brit saved the first match point she faced and even gave herself a chance to break at 5-2. But passing up that opportunity proved costly as Sun closed out the win for her seventh win in a row in this tournament.
‘I think we have to give her time, she’s been through a lot,’ the great Billie Jean King said of Raducanu. ‘But she’s got guts. She’s a performer and I just think we need to give her time.’
Raducanu was all smiles as she emerged on Centre Court, just 24 hours after her withdrawal from mixed doubles ended Andy Murray‘s Wimbledon career. The Brit pulled out to prioritise her singles run after she felt ‘soreness’ in her right wrist, causing a row online.
On Saturday she practised with strapping on her wrist but when she appeared to take on Sun on Sunday there was no sign of the strapping from a day prior.
Raducanu made a tentative start and was swiftly punished, being broken in her opening two service games to fall in a 3-0 hole.
Roared on by the crowd, the 21-year-old finally looked to settle in the fourth game, forcing a break point opportunity with a brilliant cross-court backhand winner.
A double fault from Sun, who was playing in the biggest match of her career to date in only her second Slam, gave Raducanu one of her breaks of serve back.
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But Sun has proven to be a fierce competitor without much fanfare and after breaking Raducanu again to go up 5-2 she held her nerve impressively to close it out.
It was imperative Raducanu made a strong start to the second set and at 30-30 she let out a huge roar when she took control of the rally – and then the point – to eventually hold.
Much has been made of Sun’s composure and she showed it by the bucketload here in a match where she was – perhaps unwisely – thoroughly unfavoured.
Sun was left to rue a gifted break point opportunity in the third game of the second set, sending a routine volley deep beyond the baseline when Raducanu’s hopeful return looked to be going out.
Up 2-1 and with a break point opportunity, Raducanu turned to the Centre Court crowd and nodded her head as the crowd roared her on. Her netted return that followed forced deuce before a backhand cross-court drop-shot gave Sun a timely advantage.
This was a vocal display from Raducanu, eager to amp herself up at crucial moments and saving game point up 2-1 with Sun miscalculating a forehand down the line was one of those moments.
Having held all of her service games to be up 6-5, a forehand winner on deuce, followed up by an unforced error on Sun’s backhand levelled the match up, much to the delight of a raucous home crowd.
The match arrived on the back of plenty of noise on social media overnight regarding the abandonment of the Murray mixed doubles arrangement.
Raducanu cited right wrist soreness as the reason behind her withdrawal and Judy Murray unhelpfully labelled the young Brit’s decision to not play in the mixed doubles as ‘astonishing’.
But, on Sunday morning, Judy Murray appeared to row back on her criticism of Raducanu and her team and instead directed her ire at Wimbledon’s organisers.
Raducanu and Andy Murray were due to take to No 1 Court as the fourth match of the day, meaning an 11pm finish was not out of the question.
That would have been terrible preparation for Raducanu ahead of her fourth round singles match against Lulu Sun, and Judy took to X, formerly Twitter, to fume at the scheduling.
‘Not sure anyone understands sarcasm these days,’ she said, in relation to her prior post about Raducanu’s ‘astonishing’ withdrawal.
The reality of the situation is that with rain causing havoc in the opening week of the tournament, the All England Club found themselves needing to prioritise the scheduling of singles matches.
There is pressure to play singles matches before doubles, and one of Murray-Raducanu’s scheduled opponents, Marcelo Arevalo, was finishing his men’s doubles match on Saturday morning, so they could hardly ask him to go back-to-back.
Another factor that complicated this particular mixed doubles match was that given the huge interest in it organisers were eager to put it on a show court, limiting the available slots available.