Emma Raducanu makes ‘ironic’ comment as she gives honest verdict on painful Singapore loss

round loss at the Singapore Open was “ironic” as she feels her performance was an improvement on her displays at the Australian Open.

The world No 56 lost 7-5, 5-7, 5-7 to world No 101 Cristina Bucsa after three hours and three minutes in the first round of the WTA 250 event.

Raducanu, who was the seventh seed in Singapore, was playing her first match since parting ways with coach Nick Cavaday last week.

The 22-year-old Brit earned wins over Ekaterina Alexandrova and Amanda Anisimova at the Australian Open before winning just a single game in a heavy third round defeat to world No 2 Iga Swiatek.

Following her exit in Singapore, Raducanu highlighted the positives she will take from the match in the absence of a coach.

“I have the positives [from] this week, coming here on my own with [fitness coach] Yutaka [Nakamura] and my mom, but I’m really proud of how I dealt and handled myself this week,” she said.

“I feel okay. I feel like I have certain things we all manage as the year goes on. I think it’s pretty early in the season.

“For me to be playing this kind of match, all I need is time on court and a match-competitive situation, which I got today. I got it in abundance — over three hours of it — so, for me, it’s really valuable because every match I play, I feel like it’s a win.

And I fought really hard. I gave everything. So I just got to keep building and moving on.”

I think I’m in a pretty good place with everything and I think I actually played better than I did in Melbourne, so that is ironic.

“I think it was really small margins in it. I honestly thought I played pretty well today.