Raducanu blows three match points to exit in China

Emma Raducanu tossed away three winning chances against Jessica Pegula, with the Briton crashing out in the China Open third round on Monday 3-6, 7-6 (9), 6-0 to Jessica Pegula.

The trio of missed match-winning chances echoed a previous Raducanu disaster, when she did the same 11 days ago in Seoul in a loss to Barbora Krejickova.

The seventh-ranked billionaire heiress dropped the opening set but fought back over nearly two and a half hours to deny the British No. 1 a win over a top-10 player since last March .

Raducanu won the opening set with her Chinese mother in the crowd in Beijing. But dropping the set only spurred US Open finalist Pegula on after losing 10 of her last 14 opening sets.

The American earned a double break in the concluding set after saving the three Raducanu match points in the second-set tiebreaker as she reached the fourth round. 

“It was a crazy match, ” the winner said as she prepared to face Marta Kostyuk, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

“That was really intense. I got myself back into the tie-break and just wanted to keep the pressure on.

“To be honest, I think I got a little bit lucky on two of those where I hit those two backhand winners but, other than that I just tried to keep fighting for as long as I could.”

Britain’s Sonay Kartal reached the last 16 with a defeat of Australian Maya Joint 6-3, 6-2 in 72 minutes.

Pegula will play Marta Kostyuk in the last 16 while Kartel faces Mirra Andreeva.