AUSTRIA – Unseeded Chinese Wang Xinyu caused an upset at the Linz Open on Tuesday as she took out U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-1 6-7(0) 7-5 in an absorbing three-setter to book her place in the quarter-finals of the WTA 250 event in Austria.
The defeat brought the curtain down on Raducanu's breakthrough season, during which she won her maiden Grand Slam, at Flushing Meadows in September.
Wang, 20, got off to a blistering start and clinched the opener in just under half an hour as her deep returns forced the top seed into a number of errors. Raducanu was unable to match her opponent, who won over 85% of points on her first serve.
The 18-year-old Briton responded well in the second set, breaking in the first game following a rare error from Wang before the Chinese qualifier, ranked 106 in the world, hit back with a break of her own at 3-4.
Raducanu, however, outclassed Wang in the tie-breaker, striking a flurry of winners to win seven straight points and force a decider.
With the match poised at 4-4 in the third, Raducanu, seeking only her third win since her victory in New York, had to summon the trainer for what appeared to be an injury to her right leg.
Despite the blow, Raducanu stayed in the contest by saving two match points at 4-5 but was eventually overpowered by Wang, who broke in the 11th game and comfortably closed out the match on serve when Raducanu sent a backhand long.
Raducanu appointed German Torben Beltz as her new coach, after she was beaten in her opening match. She had been without a coach since she parted ways with Andrew Richardson two weeks after her surprise triumph at Flushing Meadows in September, where she became the first qualifier to win a major.
"It's obviously a great privilege to be working with such an experienced coach. I'm definitely very excited to work with him throughout the pre-season and into next year," Raducanu, who had been the top seed in Linz, told reporters.
"Very positive feeling about all the work there is to come."
Beltz, who recently split with compatriot Angelique Kerber, led the former world number one to the Australian Open and U.S. Open titles in 2016.
"He's obviously worked with Kerber who is such a great player and has done extremely well and won three Slams and I think that experience definitely helps with someone as inexperienced as me..." added Raducanu.
"Also he's a really positive, cheerful guy who brings great energy to the team so I think that's also important when you're travelling on the road for quite a long time on the tour."
The 44-year-old also coached Croatia's Donna Vekic between 2017 and 2020, helping her break into the top 20 before rejoining Kerber's team last year.
