Emma Raducanu ended her preparations for the Australian Open with a miserable 6-2, 6-4 defeat by Taylah Preston, a 20-year-old Australian wildcard, in the quarter-finals of the Hobart international.
As the top seed in Hobart, a small WTA 250 tournament, Raducanu had entered the tournament with a real opportunity to compete for an elusive second career WTA title since her win at the US Open more than four years ago. Instead, the challenging rainy conditions were seemingly all it took to unsettle the Briton, who put in a dismal performance on Thursday evening. Her defeat against Preston, the WTA No 204, is her fourth-worst defeat by ranking since 2021.
In an afternoon filled with various frustrating rain delays, the players were only on court for about 10 minutes before they had to return to the locker room with Raducanu trailing 1-2. Upon the restart, the 23-year-old was in awful form, spraying careless unforced errors from all parts of the court. Despite playing so passively, Preston was able to dictate many of the baseline exchanges.
Raducanu improved slightly in set two, cutting out sloppy errors and at least forcing Preston to take control and beat her, but she simply did not look as if she had the patience or willpower to fight sufficiently. Throughout the second set she was at the mercy of her bolder, more committed Preston, who generated more pace from the baseline and swung freely at the end faced with minimal resistance in the decisive moments.
Despite Raducanu’s unimpressive effort, this result was also the consequence of a good performance from Preston, a talented youngster who is making her way towards the WTA Tour after a top 10 junior career. She showed her talent throughout with her clean, bold shotmaking, outhitting Raducanu for most of the encounter. Even as Raducanu led by a break, Preston continued to trust her attacking instincts as she searched for a way to take control again, which guided her to the best victory of her young career.
Raducanu will now head to Melbourne for the Australian Open where she must make significant improvements if she is to win even a couple of rounds. She will face Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew in the first round, but another match-up with one of the best players in the world looms. Raducanu, the 28th seed in Melbourne, will potentially face the two-time champion and world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in round three.
Raducanu is one of four British players in the women’s draw. Sonay Kartal will begin with a difficult first round match against the 31st seed, Anna Kalinskaya, and Francesca Jones will start against the 21-year-old Polish qualifier Linda Klimovicova in her first grand slam main draw appearance as a direct entrant. Katie Boulter, who snuck into the main draw after a couple of late retirements, will meet Belinda Bencic, the 10th seed and one of the most in-form players in the tournament, in round one.
Three British players are in the men’s draw, with the 26th seed Cameron Norrie drawing Benjamin Bonzi in round one and potentially meeting Alexander Zverev in round three. Jacob Fearnley, meanwhile, will face Kamil Majchrzak in round one. On Thursday afternoon, they were joined by the 23-year-old Briton Arthur Fery, who qualified for the main draw in his first appearance, defeating the 14th qualifying seed Dino Prizmic 6-4, 6-1 to seal his place without dropping a set all week. He will play Flavio Cobolli, the 20th seed, on his Australian Open main draw debut.
