Emma Raducanu showed her fighting spirit but fell to an agonising defeat to World No1 Arnya Sabalenka as her hopes of a Wimbledon title came to a heart-breaking end.
The 22-year-old battled hard but lost 7-6, 6-4 on Centre Court to leave Cameron Norrie and Sonay Kartal as the only Brits left standing after they reached the fourth round yesterday.
Raducanu saved seven set points in a thrilling opener and then missed a chance to lead 5-1 in the second set before Sabalenka fought back to win.
Sabalenka said: ‘She played such incredible tennis and pushed me really hard. I fought for every point like crazy. I’m happy to see her healthy and back on track. I’m sure she will soon be back in the top 10.
‘She was making me move a lot, serving well, from the baseline she was playing great tennis.’
Raducanu had coarsed into the third round after beating Mimi Xu and Marketa Vondrousova without dropping a set.
Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon dream is over for another year after she lost to Aryna Sabalenka
The British No 1 battled hard but lost five straight games in the second set to sink to defeat
Sabalenka had to fight through a tiebreak in the first set, then come from 4-1 down in the second, and hailed her opponent for playing ‘incredible tennis’
And she came into the match with hopes of causing an upset after the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth seeds had already been knocked out of the tournament.
But she met her match in Sabalenka in what was a ferocious battle on Centre Court, ending after 10pm on Friday night.
The Belarusian snatched the first set 7-6 as she won the tiebreak 8-6 and then produced a comeback in the second set to win that 6-4.
Raducanu almost took the lead in the match when she was serving for the first set at 6-5 in the tiebreak.
But Sabalenka gave as good as she got and clinched the first set, which lasted 74 minutes, with a neat drop volley.
Raducanu came flying out of the blocks in the second set, holding her first serve to 15 before dropping a game to her opponent.
Then came a run of three game wins back-to-back for the British No 1, with Raducanu’s attack-minded, aggressive play paying dividends.
Somehow, she had established a commanding 4-1 lead.
But Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam winner, had other ideas and won five games without reply, clawing her way to victory via two breaks and three holds of serve.
In Sabalenka’s final service game, Raducanu tried to battle back from 40-0 down, but could only get as far as 40-30 before she returned a shot into the net.
