(Tennis news) British number 1 Emma Raducanu’s hopes of winning the title at the Transylvania Open were ended after the 18 year old lost in the quarter-final of the tournament 6-2 6-1 to Marta Kostyuk. Before this week, Raducanu had never won a WTA tour level match but managed to defeat Ana Bogdan and Polona Hercog. However, her opponent, just a year older, proved to be the far better player on the day with the contest lasting less than an hour.

Kostyuk gave Raducanu no room to make a comeback, hitting the ball cleanly and rallied from 15-40 down to win the first game. The 18 year old British player refused to give up, attempting a valiant comeback at 2-1 and 3-2 down but Kostyuk seemed a step ahead at every juncture, winning three straight points to get a 4-2 lead. To make matters worse, Raducanu made seven double faults and a total of 41 unforced errors, far from a flawless display she produced at the Flushing Meadows.

Raducanu had a slightly improved display in the last game of the match, winning three match points and forcing a couple of game points of her own, but it was too little too late as Kostyuk displayed far better consistency and quality throughout the 57 minutes to deservedly progress into the final four of the Transylvania Open. After the defeat, Raducanu said “I was quite tired and lethargic but all credit to Marta. I wasn't physically feeling 100%. I knew from practice that I was tired, couldn't get it going. It's disappointing that you have these days, it's not a nice feeling to have. I just need to move on from it and brush it off and then I'll be back in another tournament soon."

In other results, Simona Halep defeated Jaqueline Cristian 6-1, 6-1 while Anett Kontaveit and Sweden's Rebecca Peterson will face each other in the other semi-final. Kontaveit defeated Anhelina Kalinina 6-3, 6-1 to extend her winning streak to 13 games and looks like a favourite to win her third title in six weeks, having already won in Moscow and Ostrava.

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