Seventh-seeded Emma Raducanu of Great Britain couldn’t complete a hard-fought comeback attempt and lost 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) to Maya Joint on Wednesday in Eastbourne, England.
Raducanu broke the Australian three times when she was serving for the match to set up a tie-break and even earned a mini-break to lead 4-3. But Joint answered with four consecutive points for the win and a quarterfinal matchup against Russia’s Anna Blinkova.
Second-seeded Czech Barbora Krejcikova knocked out another home-crowd favorite by beating Britain’s Jodie Burrage 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3). Filipina Alexandra Eala will face Ukranian Dayana Yastremska after her second-round opponent, Jelena Ostapenko, was forced to retire with an injury. Ostapenko took the first set 6-0 before Eala fought back to win the second 6-2. But with Eala up 3-2 in the third, the Latvian was forced to retire.
Russian Kamilla Rakhimova recovered from 2-4 down in the second set to beat Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 and reach her first WTA quarterfinal, where she will face off against fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Bad Homburg Open
Nobody was going down easy at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany as all four second-round matches reached three sets. No. 3 seed Mirra Andreeva climbed back from a first-set loss to beat Clara Tauson of Denmark 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. Andreeva earned a spot in her first career grass-court quarterfinal by fighting hard in the second two sets to overcome Tauson’s powerful and accurate serve.
The 18-year-old Russian will next face Linda Noskova, who also needed some comeback magic to beat last year’s Bad Homburg finalist Donna Vekic of Croatia in a heavy-hitting 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win. Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia also lost her first set to her opponent, Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, before climbing back to win 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7) to set up a quarterfinal match with Italy’s Jessica Pegula.
No. 8 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova unleashed 13 aces and wild card Maria Sakkari failed to convert any of her eight break points in Alexandrova’s 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3 win. It was Alexandrova’s first complete victory over Sakkari in seven tries, with her only previous win coming via retirement.
