Raducanu ‘proud’ despite defeat while Murray admits loss ‘not good enough’

Emma Raducanu said that she was proud of the fight she demonstrated in her second-round match at the Australian Open on Thursday after she was defeated by Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic in three tight sets despite suffering badly from blisters.

On a day of disappointment for Britain at Melbourne Park, Andy Murray bowed out with a straight sets defeat to the qualifier Taro Daniel shortly before Raducanu was eliminated. Due to her injury the 19-year-old was forced to spend much of the match slicing her forehand, which she says unlocked a new part of her game and underlined her fighting spirit after winning the US Open last year.

“I did discover elements of my game I didn’t know I had before, and I can use that going forward,” said Raducanu.

“And also I just know that I’ve got that fight in me. Even if I have, like, one shot, I know that I can pull myself out of deep situations. Because I’m still young, I feel like I can learn a backhand, I can learn some tactics, but it’s quite hard to learn or teach someone that fight and grittiness to hang in there when things are pretty much all against you. So I’m quite proud of that.”

Raducanu had reached the second round by defeating the former US Open champion Sloane Stephens before she fell 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to Kovinic. She admitted that she has been struggling with blisters since returning to training after missing a few weeks due to Covid. Raducanu revealed that members in her team did not even want her to compete in Australia but she fought to be there.

“That thought when I was slicing forehands and really struggling, I was, like, ‘do I [retire]?’ But I didn’t want to – as I said, some people in my team didn’t want me to even go out there. So I fought so hard just to come out to