Emma Raducanu bowed out in the first round at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart as Jelena Ostapenko breezed past her in less than an hour.
The British No 1, who has been battling a wrist injury, was comprehensively outplayed by the 2017 French Open winner as she romped to a 6-2, 6-1 victory in 59 minutes on the clay to set up a second-round showdown with the third seed, Ons Jabeur.
Both players held serve comfortably at the first time of asking but as Ostapenko started to find rhythm her power and depth off the forehand set up a break point in the third game, which she converted with a fine backhand return.
The Latvian established a 4-1 lead with a second successive break courtesy of another forehand winner as Raducanu struggled to deal with the weight of her opponent’s hitting, and she was caught out by her touch too as a deft drop shot helped to secure the next game. Having stopped the rot to make it 5-2, the 2021 US Open winner was swatted aside as Ostapenko served out for the set, winning it 6-2 in 29 minutes.
Raducanu’s response was to win the first six points of the second set, holding service impressively to love before establishing a 30-0 lead in the second game, but the door was slammed firmly shut as the world No 22 rattled off 16 successive points to go 4-1 up.
The Briton fashioned her first break point of the match in the next game, but was unable to take it and found herself serving to stay in it, ultimately in vain as Ostapenko crashed a forehand service return past her to set up a match point she took with the minimum of fuss.
Kyle Edmund bowed out of the BMW Open in Munich as the eighth seed, Marc-Andrea Hüsler, edged past him into the last 16.
The 28-year-old former British No 1, continuing his comeback from an injury-hit two years, forced a tie-break in the first set and won the second before finally succumbing 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3.
after newsletter promotion
In the process, Hüsler lined up a clash with Austria’s Dominic Thiem, who had won the first set of his match 6-3 when Constant Lestienne was forced to retire.
Edmund, now ranked 509th in the world, will be in the field at the French Open next month after using a protected ranking. The entry list for the tournament was released on Tuesday, with Edmund and fellow Britons Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans, Jack Draper and Andy Murray joining the 14-time champion Rafael Nadal and world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles draw at Roland Garros.