Emma Raducanu feels she has a “long way to go” to compete against the world’s best players after being dominated by Amanda Anisimova with a 52-minute drubbing in Indian Wells.
The British number one and 2021 US Open champion scored 21 points to her opponent’s 53 in the match, but hit just two winners as she lost 6-1, 6-1 in the third round in California.
Raducanu lost her service game to two-time Grand Slam runner-up Anisimova in the first game of the tournament, and was unable to take the match back until she was down 3-0 in the second set.
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Raducanu is positive after suffering a tough loss to two-time Grand Slam runner-up Anisimova
The 23-year-old, who defeated Anastasia Zakharova 6-1, 6-3 in her first match, will make her return to action at another WTA 1000 tournament, the Miami Open, later this month.
After losing to Anisimova, she said: “When you play against guys like that at the top, I think they’re going over 10 miles per hour on their serve more than me.”
Raducanu: My punches didn’t hit as hard as hers.
Raducanu continued: “The gap feels more obvious, even if I don’t feel it, in terms of the weight and power of the shot.
“You feel a little bit behind and your punches just don’t land as much as they do.
“We need to be aggressive when playing against those players, but I think we still have a long way to go to do that. We need to play to our strengths and maybe combine them a little bit more.”
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Raducanu defeated Anastasia Zakharova in the first match of the BNP Paribas Open
Raducanu, who briefly teamed up with Mark Petchey after parting ways with manager Francisco Roig in January, added to Sky Sports: “It was difficult to get close to stamping the match.
“That also applies when you play against Amanda. She is the type of opponent who likes to impose her reputation first.
“I have to take some positives. My first game here was better than a lot of the games I’ve played recently. I had a great first game and I felt like I was in a really good place with my game.”
“But a game like that (against Anisimova) is never easy. We didn’t have many rallies. The ball was so fast that it was difficult to do anything and it was very difficult to try to survive within the points.”
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Sky Sports pundits Tim Henman, Laura Robson and Naomi Cavadey discuss how much influence Mark Petchey will have on Laducanu’s game
“Mark helped me a lot this week and it was great to be on the court with him again,” Raducanu said of Petchey.
“But he’s going to be commentating on Tennis Channel this week and probably the end of the week, so we don’t know how much time we’ll have together before Miami.”
Watch the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells live on Sky Sports until March 15th. Stream tennis now with no contract required.
