Emma Raducanu made it clear she wasn’t happy with officiating following her first-round win at a WTA 250 tournament in Nottingham as the British tennis player said at moments she felt like she was “playing two versus one.”
On Tuesday, home favorite Raducanu kicked off her Nottingham campaign with a 6-1 6-4 win over 274th-ranked qualifier Ena Shibahara.
Early in the first set, one of Shibahara’s volleys was called out but chair umpire Ana Carvalho overturned the call and the Japanese was awarded the point. Raducanu wasn’t happy with the overrule and she was heard telling chair umpire Carvalho that Shibahara reacted in a way that suggested that she accepted that the ball went wide.
Had Raducanu won that point, she would have had a break point to potentially go 3-0 up in the first set. But instead, Shibahara got a game point and realized to get on the board.
Then serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set, Raducanu thought one of Shibahara’s was well wide. But the umpires remained silent and Raducanu lost that point since she didn’t manage to return the ball in play. The 21-year-old Briton wasn’t happy at all as she was heard remarking that it was “a really bad call.”
Raducanu got broken back in that game but still won the match in two sets after…
