Emma Raducanu gives update after feeling ‘faint and dizzy’ in defeat to Jessica Pegula
Emma Raducanu has revealed that she felt “faint and dizzy” during her defeat to Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open.
An impressive run from Raducanu in Florida was halted by the fourth seed as Pegula emerged in three sets to reach the last four of the WTA event.
A hard-fought contest saw the 22-year-old British player battle back to level the match despite taking a medical timeout in the second set.
Raducanu had surged to a 5-2 advantage as she fought back after losing the first but let four set points slip, and had to have her blood pressure and pulse checked by medics after calling for a medical timeout before eventually prevailing in a tie-break. Pegula was then able to progress with a 6-2 margin in the final set.
“I just felt really dizzy,” Raducanu told TennisOne after the defeat. “I felt faint.
“It was very humid out there and we had a long wait, so maybe it was just an accumulation. [There were] just physical points as well, with long rallies and heavy conditions. I don’t know how I kind of regrouped in that second set but, in the third, I definitely struggled a little bit.”
Both players had endured a two-hour delay to the scheduled start time as organisers worked to clear a backlog of matches in Miami, with the pair taking to court around 9pm local time.
The encounter was Raducanu’s first quarter-final at WTA 1000 level, with the 2021 US Open winner sure to take encouragement from a productive run that saw her beat seeds Emma Navarro and Amanda Anisimova.
The 22-year-old has been operating without a full-time coach in Miami with Mark Petchey and Jane O’Donoghue offering informal support at the tournament.
Raducanu is next likely to be on court when Great Britain play in the Billie Jean King Cup in the Netherlands on 11 and 12 April, before the clay court season begins fully later that month.
“I think I need to just take a break and kind of re-evaluate what I’m doing,” Raducanu said. “This week was good but I need to just figure things out and then I’ll make a plan from there.”