Emma Raducanu’s hopes of a Wimbledon run to echo her breakthrough tournament a year ago were dashed in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Caroline Garcia on Wednesday.
There were the occasional moments of brilliance from the British No1 but she struggled for any level of consistency against a far more experienced opponent.
She struggled with her serve – winning less than half of the points available – while Garcia was the greater aggressor throughout.
Garcia's serve-volley game rushed and rattled her 19-year-old opponent, and she won 16 of 20 points at the net as the Frenchwoman, undeterred by not being the home favourite, booked her place in the third round to silence the SW19 crowd.
It is worth reminding that for all Raducanu’s early career brilliance at Wimbledon and subsequently the US Open, this is only her first full season on the WTA Tour, Plus, her 2022 season has been beset by injury most recently a “freak” side strain three weeks ago.
And yet the teenager, who had relished her Centre Court debut 48 hours earlier, seemed a little flat for much of the opening set and the atmosphere was initially lacking with a surprising number of empty seats on Centre Court and, with it, a slightly muted response to her.
Garcia’s serve was put under immediate pressure but held while Raducanu was broken at the first time of asking. The home favourite broke straight back only to be broken again in game six with a limp backhand into the net which brought with it a fist bump and shout of “come on” from Garcia.
The aggressive, energised approach which has been Raducanu’s modus operandi for the past year occasionally threatened to ignite but, if anything, she was outplayed at her own game by her 28-year-old rival.
Raducanu opted for a comfort break after the first set to regroup and was greeted by a course of cheers on her return to Centre Court. The rise in volume seemed to help the Briton and she held her first game.
She finally found Garcia on the backfoot in the very next game, bringing up a break point with a lovely backhand crosscourt, one of only two points from 12 that Garcia had lost at the net at that point. But a crosscourt forehand to get the break hit the top of the net, bounced back on her side of the net and the chance went begging.
There followed a trio of breaks – two for Garcia and one for Raducanu, the Briton’s coming when Garcia found the tramlines with a forehand. When Garcia broke again, it finally knocked the wind out of Raducanu’s remaining challenge.
