As Emma Raducanu became increasingly overwhelmed under the relentless pressure imposed on her by the coldblooded qualifier Lulu Sun in their three-set tussle on Sunday, it became clear her time at Wimbledon was at an end. An intense, breathless service game at 4-2 down in set three finished with a tired double fault from Raducanu and, minutes later, her opponent closed out the match to reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the first time.
A massive opportunity missed, Raducanu left Centre Court appropriately frustrated. Still, her run to the fourth round of Wimbledon represents a huge step forward after nearly three years in the wilderness in the aftermath of her US Open triumph.
While her performance at Wimbledon has been strong in itself, it has been even more impressive to see Raducanu string a series of solid results together at the top level of the sport for the first time in her career. In her last six events, Raducanu has led Great Britain to a brilliant win over France on clay, which she followed up with a quarter-final run at Stuttgart.
After a poor first-round loss in Madrid and a controversial decision to skip the final weeks of the claycourt season, her fourth-round run at Wimbledon was preceded by a semi-final at Nottingham and a quarter-final at Eastbourne.
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