Emma Raducanu is planning to pass on next week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships where she would have required a wild card and instead head back to London to analyse her early exit at the Qatar Open.
Raducanu squandered set point in a second-set tie-break as she lost to Anhelina Kalinina in the opening round on Monday.
The British No 7 had been granted a wild card for the first WTA 1000 event of the season in Doha, but slipped to a fourth defeat in seven matches since returning from injury.
“I just struggled with the timing of the ball to be honest. I think it’s going to come with more time, practising as well as matches,” Raducanu told Sky Sports Tennis.
“I think it’s going to come with time, practising and its hard for me to get used to just the tour schedule, it’s just like: tournament, back, tournament just straight away.
“So I think that I need to schedule my tournaments a bit better as well as just trying to get some more matches under my belt.
“I think that I’m just going to go home and practise and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
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Raducanu felt she never really got into her match against Kalinina and she is now planning more preparation time back home in London
Bartoli: She has potential to come back to top 10 but a lot of work needs to be done
Marion Bartoli has backed Raducanu to bounce back from her latest defeat
Marion Bartoli believes former US Open champion Raducanu has the potential to return to the top 10, despite her current ranking down at 262 in the world.
“I felt towards the end of the second set she was getting a little tired and they had two really long points when Emma was up 6-5 in the tie-break and you can see on the match point she was basically struggling physically, so it’s all of that you have to take in,” said Bartoli, a former Wimbledon champion.
“A huge debrief has to be done with her team as to what’s going on now that she’s been able to play a few tournaments back to back and really come up with a plan because you can see some of the shots are still there.
“You can see that if she put it together she has absolutely the potential to come back in that top 10 but a lot of work needs to be done.”
Robson: Unforced errors proved costly
Laura Robson gave her assessment on Raducanu’s first-round loss
“Forty-eight unforced errors – that’s where you start when you debrief the match,” said former British No 1 Laura Robson. “That’s a sign of a very tough day in the office.
“How do you cut the number down in future matches? And yes, she did bring the number down as the match went on but it was almost a bit too late because Kalinina had a bit too much confidence in her backhand as the match went on. That was really the story.
“As soon as Kalinina was able to rip the backhand cross-court, Emma wasn’t able to get enough width on her forehand and that affects the depth.”
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