US Open champ Raducanu ousted at Indian Wells; Murray wins
Raducanu lost 6-2, 6-4 in the second round, ending her 10-match winning streak that began in New York. She received a wild-card into the combined ATP and WTA tournament in the Southern California desert.
Emma Raducanu came down to earth in her first tournament since her surprising US Open victory, losing in straight sets to Aliaksandra Sasnovich at the BNP Paribas Open.
Raducanu lost 6-2, 6-4 in the second round on Friday night, ending her 10-match winning streak that began in New York. She received a wild-card into the combined ATP and WTA tournament in the Southern California desert.
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Second Top 50 win of the season 🌟
— wta (@WTA) October 9, 2021
Aliaksandra Sasnovich takes out Raducanu in straight-sets!#BNPPO21 pic.twitter.com/3aK1csyN2r
Murray fires five aces
Former world No. 1 Andy Murray beat Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-2 in his first match as a wild-card. Murray fired five aces and connected on 82 percent of his first serves against the French lefty-hander.
Murray converted three of six break points; Mannarino failed in his lone chance to break.
👏 ANDY. MURRAY. 👏
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 9, 2021
Oustanding defence from @andy_murray at #BNPPO21! pic.twitter.com/nO03z2z87C
Sasnovich lost no serve
US Open runner-up Leyla Fernandez played Alize Cornet in a late match.
Sasnovich, a 27-year-old from Belarus ranked 100th in the world, reached the doubles semifinals last month at the US Open while Raducanu was completing a stunning run from qualifier to champion at age 18.
“Emma just won the US Open and I lost there in the first round,” Sasnovich said, “so it was a little bit different."
Sasnovich got service breaks to take leads of 3-1 an d 5-2 and close out the set in 30 minutes without ever losing her serve.
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Raducanu rallied in the second set, taking a 4-2 lead. But Sasnovich broke for a fifth time and led 5-4 before serving out the match. Sasnovich won 53% of her second serves to just 29% for Raducanu.
“I did everything right and I'm happy with the result,” Sasnovich said.
Sasnovich advanced to play No. 11 seed Simona Halep in the third round. Halep beat Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (2), 6-1.