Great Britain's Emma Raducanu suffered a gut-wrenching defeat to Paula Badosa in the quarter-finals of the Washington Open, despite saving a match point in the third set.
The former US Open champion has been on the comeback trail this season following her injury-disrupted 2023 and eliminated Elise Mertens and Peyton Stearns to set up an intriguing battle with fellow wild card Badosa.
However, after taking the first set against her Spanish foe, Raducanu was bested 6-4 5-7 4-6 at the conclusion of a contest full of late twists and turns, where the Briton broke the Spaniard's serve straight off the bat in the decider.
A late Raducanu capitulation saw the 21-year-old go from 3-1 up to 5-3 down as she lost serve twice, but she saved one match point on the Badosa serve and broke back to keep the fight alive.
While Raducanu battled for glory in the United States, Andy Murray - whom she was supposed to partner in the Wimbledon mixed doubles before withdrawing due to injury - saved a staggering eight match points in his three Paris 2024 Olympics doubles matches with Dan Evans, before his career came to an end on Thursday with defeat to the USA.
There would be no Murray-esque fightback for Raducanu in Washington, though, as mere moments after saving Badosa's first match point, she committed a costly double fault - her sixth of the match - on the Spaniard's second opportunity.
Badosa kept her celebrations to a minimum before embracing Raducanu at the net, as the world number 62 advanced to meet Caroline Dolehide in the semi-finals.
Ben Knapton
