Emma Raducanu Beaten By Teenager In Last Match Before Wimbledon

Emma Raducanu's preparations for this year's Wimbledon Championships ended in a disappointing loss at the 2025 Eastbourne Open.

As a Brit, Raducanu will always be one of the dark horses at every grass-court event that she enters. It's not a surprise that the vast majority of the grass-court tournaments are held in Great Britain, with players from this country often excelling on the surface thanks to the accessibility of the grass-court facilities.

The 2021 US Open champion proved her qualities on the surface at the Queen's Club Championships, reaching the quarter-finals, but she was then forced to withdraw from the Berlin Open because of an injury.

Raducanu recovered in time to play at the Eastbourne Open. She won her first-round match, beating Ann Li. After her win, the British player broke down in tears, but as she later explained, the reason for her tears was not related to tennis.

In the second round, the home crowd favorite took on 19-year-old Maya Joint, who is already ranked 51st in the world. Thanks to her run at the WTA 250 event in Eastbourne, the teenager will even break into the Top 50. That will happen unless Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reaches the semi-finals or Alexandra Eala wins the event.

Joint gave herself a chance to break into the Top 50 by playing a very good match against Raducanu. She started by breaking the Brit's serve, leading 2-0 early in the opening set.

But Raducanu had a response ready. The former WTA World No. 10 player broke back, and she was able to even establish a one-break advantage, leading 4-3. Joint then broke her back, but after Raducanu added another break, the 19-year-old was not able to respond, with the 2021 US Open winner winning the first set 6-4.

But the Australian teenager was the much better player in the second set. The crucial difference was on serve. While Joint lost only five points on her serve in the set, Raducanu lost 17, which was just too much.

The British player was broken twice, losing the second set 1-6, which meant a decider had to decide this match. Joint started the third set by breaking her opponent's serve, but she had to defend her lead at 3-2.

Raducanu had three chances to break back, but all of those remained unused. Yet, the 22-year-old never stopped fighting. She broke Joint's serve when the teenager served for the match, and later held her serve to make it 4-5.

Still, Joint had another chance to serve out the match, but again, she was broken. The 19-year-old gave herself one more chance by breaking Raducanu's serve and leading 6-5, but the Brit leveled the score once more, forcing a tie-break.

Raducanu was then the first player to hold a mini-break in the tie-break, leading 4-3, but from that point, she couldn't win another rally. Joint won the match 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4), securing her spot in the quarter-finals of the Eastbourne Open. The Australian was visibly delighted by her performance after the match.

Raducanu will now move to London. She will be one of the players that everyone will want to avoid in the Wimbledon draw. She will be one of the highest-ranked unseeded players.