Emma Raducanu ‘disappointed’ after French Open first-round exit to Solana Sierra - ‘It’s not a nice feeling’

In her first major appearance since reuniting with coach Andrew Richardson - who she worked with during her US Open title-winning run in 2021 - Raducanu struggled to establish any sort of momentum and fell to a 6-0 7-6(4) loss.

It was a nightmare opening for Raducanu, who fell three breaks behind and massively struggled to acclimatise, grinding Court 13 into an eerie silence.

With Raducanu first to serve, Sierra forged two break points, which were chalked back by Raducanu, but the Brit could not prevent the early break when she went into the net following her opponent fortuitously landing in via the net cord.

Raducanu struggled to deal with Sierra's point construction and big-hitting power. The Argentine's hold to 15 was followed by a swift break to love, breaking for the second time when she crunched a down-the-line winner off Raducanu's shallow second serve.

She had the chance to break back and cut into her deficit by forging a break point on deuce but her backhand dropped wide and Sierra took advantage from yet more Raducanu unforced errors - consolidating again for a cozy 4-0 lead.

And matters got worse for Raducanu, as the bagel set was completed within just 25 minutes. It was a torrid opening six games for the British No. 1, who failed to hit a single winner and was guilty of 15 unforced errors.

"I can't really explain it right now," she said in her post-match press conference when asked about the opening set. I haven't processed it fully. I think it was really difficult.

"I went on the court. I felt like the conditions were extremely lively and I felt like I wasn't able to trust my shots in that and didn't feel like I had control over the ball.

"Yeah, it was just a really difficult kind of setup for me to step into. I think probably just a bit light on matches, a bit light on confidence coming into the tournament.

"Yeah, the first set happened super quickly and it's not a nice feeling, you know, when the points and the games are going, like, very, very fast. I'm glad at least in the second set I was able to kind of, you know, get a few games on the board."

She chalked up her first game of the afternoon by holding serve straight away in the second set, finally able to get her strings on the ball and dictate some of the play.

Raducanu continued to show more encouraging signs and began to mount a challenge on the serve of her opponent but could not convert her break point and saw the opportunity pass by.

The Brit was not so fluid when she returned to serve. She sandwiched an ace between two double faults as Sierra established two break points and, after a couple of deuce exchanges, Raducanu stared in the face of an early Paris exit by slamming a mid-court forehand into the net to concede another break.

Sierra gained her fifth break of the match to establish a 4-1 lead in the second but Raducanu showed some fighting spirit to immediately break back and consolidate, hoping to spring the unlikeliest of comebacks. And her pressure saw unforced errors begin to creep into Sierra's game.

But, when Raducanu fired long after a tense baseline exchange, Sierra secured a crucial hold in a tightly-contested game to move 5-3 ahead.

Raducanu - on the brink of a tournament exit - admirably fought back to level the set at 5-5 with her best tennis of the match to that point.

The Brit continued her fightback to force a tie-breaker but it was Sierra who held her nerve and progressed into the next round.

"Yeah, it was difficult," Raducanu added. "I don't think I've fully processed it yet, so it's hard to kind of speak about the match right now.

"But I have to at least take the fact that from, you know, a set and 4-1 down, I came back and made it competitive in the second set. Yeah, in a way I'm pretty disappointed.

"Obviously I wanted to do better, but I guess that's the light I can take from today."

Sierra will face either Jasmine Paolini or Dayana Yastremska in the second round. Raducanu's attention will turn towards the grass season and her home Grand Slam.

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