Emma Raducanu beaten by Marta Kostyuk in the quarter-finals of the Transylvania Open By DJ Hamilton
It has been a whirlwind roller coaster for 18-year old British teenager Emma Raducanu since her magical run and victory at the US Open in September. She is still coming to terms with the fast pace of life at such a young age, including all the endorsements and attention that have come her way since her US Open title. She suffered a disappointing loss this past Friday to the 19-year old Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.
Kostyuk, who was the sixth seed in the tournament to Raducanu’s third, defeated the misfiring 18-year-old 6-2 6-1 in under an hour at the WTA 250 event in Cluj-Napoca, with the Brit committing 41 unforced errors during the contest, compared to just 16 for Kostyuk. Raducanu had an early breakdown in the first set but started to find her range and cope better with Kostyuk’s powerful serve.
After the match Raducanu spoke to reporters on how she was feeling, stating, “I wasn't physically feeling 100%. I was quite tired and lethargic today. Sometimes you just have those days where you don't feel your best,” she told reporters. “I knew from the morning, I knew from practice. I wanted to go out there on the court and try my best and see how it was going to go, maybe it would go better. But I just couldn't get it going today unfortunately. It's just disappointing that you have these days. It's not a nice feeling to have, but I just need to move on from it and brush it off. And then I'll be back in another tournament soon."
Losing in this tournament definitely has some critics raising an eyebrow, especially since she fired former Davis Cup player and her coach, Andrew Richardson after the grand slam tournament and after winning the Flushing Meadows title in September as a qualifier. Raducanu won her first two matches on the WTA tour this week and is scheduled to play her last tournament of the season at the Nov. 6-12 Upper Austria Ladies Linz.
Raducanu stated how fast paced life has been and how she’s still adjusting by stating, “I think it's just the last six months, It's been a lot of learning and I've experienced a lot in the last six months with not so many gaps. I'm just adapting to the fast-paced life of the tour and obviously still very new to it, so it's still going to take me some time to adjust.”
She’ll have to do very quickly as her next tournament starts as soon as this Saturday as the British tennis phenom will look to redeem herself.
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