Emma Raducanu suffers ankle damage forward of Australian Open and retires from ASB Traditional last-16 match in tears | Tennis Information

Emma Raducanu was in tears after retiring with an injured ankle on the ASB Traditional, lower than two weeks earlier than the Australian Open begins.

The Briton had breezed via the primary set of the last-16 tie in opposition to Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova, successful 6-0 in simply over 20 minutes.

Raducanu confronted way more of a problem within the second set, and acquired remedy on her left ankle close to the top of it, earlier than pulling out in tears at the beginning of the third set.

Raducanu had been damaged at 2-2 and fell 4-2 behind within the second set, however broke again within the tenth sport of the set to degree issues at 5-5. The Briton was damaged once more within the very subsequent sport, nevertheless, earlier than happening to lose the second set 7-5.

Through the match, Raducanu summoned the coach courtside to closely strap her left ankle in an extended medical timeout.

She tried to play on however was not capable of full the primary sport of the third set, acknowledging she couldn’t proceed.

Raducanu was marked as certainly one of tennis’ hottest stars when she gained the US Open in 2021. Her profession since has been dogged by accidents. She retired from matches 4 instances in 2022 and most just lately has needed to cope with a wrist damage.

Kuzmova will face Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic within the quarter-finals, after the latter defeated American Lauren Davis in three units 4-6 6-3 6-2 to progress.

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Elsewhere, Venus Williams blew a 5-3 last-set lead in a match which stretched over almost seven hours due to rain in dropping to Zhu Lin of China 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.

The 42-year-old Williams fought via each second of the second-round match which started after midday and ended close to 7pm, which started open air and ended indoors, and which contained 13 service breaks earlier than lastly tipping in favour of Zhu in the previous couple of video games.

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, beginning her thirtieth 12 months on the WTA Tour, gained her first tour match in almost two years when she beat Katie Volynets on Monday within the first spherical of the Auckland event. She performed solely 4 matches in 2022 and hoped to progress to the second spherical of a event for the primary time since 2019.

High-seeded American Coco Gauff will face Zhu within the quarterfinals after her 6-4, 6-4 win over compatriot Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.

Seventh-ranked Gauff additionally needed to play indoors and beat Kenin in slightly below 90 minutes, levelling their head-to-head file after Kenin beat Gauff en path to the Australian Open title.

Danka Kovinic, the seventh seed, beat former champion Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and qualifier Rebeka Masarova beat Anna Blinkova 6-1, 6-4.