Emma Raducanu’s Indian Wells campaign came to an abrupt end in a 52-minute thrashing at the hands of Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova.
Raducanu might have looked like a figure transformed during her straight-sets win over qualifier Anastasia Zakharova in the previous round, but against Anisimova she came undone, in a ruthless 6-1, 6-1 defeat.
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Instead of playing with freedom and confidence, Raducanu appeared tense and nervous and her technique suffered. She won just 21 of 74 points played and admitted she needs to be more “aggressive” in matches against top-10 players, where she has been soundly beaten recently.
It was a stark contrast to Anisimova, who described her own performance as “fearless” and the American did not have to face even a break point in the match.
“It was difficult to come close to putting my stamp on the match,” Raducanu told Sky Sports. “That goes with playing Amanda – she is that sort of opponent who likes to put her stamp on it first.
“I have to take some positives. The first match here was better than a lot of matches I have been playing recently but a match like that is never easy to take.”
In their three previous meetings, all in 2025, Raducanu won two. But when Anisimova came out of the blocks firing, she was not able to offer any resistance. It was reminiscent of their meeting in Montreal, when the Briton could only win three games in a 64-minute loss.
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One of the cleanest ball-strikers in the game, Anisimova reached two grand slam finals last year, famously losing in a “double bagel” (6-0, 6-0) to Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon. Since then, she has refined her game, even re-watching that final on the eve of her meeting with Swiatek at the US Open, before going on to reach the final.
As the sixth seed in Palm Springs, she looks a force to be reckoned with as she broke Raducanu at ease with a wide array of shots that the British No 1 had little answer for, as her movement appeared stilted. Anisimova played several drop shots that Raducanu did not even attempt to chase down, not that it would have changed the outcome.
It was a contest in which Raducanu never gained a foothold after being broken in the first game of the match. All of that renewed vigour she exemplified in the previous round was nowhere to be seen. Anisimova played astonishing tennis to take the first set 6-1 while hardly breaking a sweat and in less than half an hour, hitting 10 winners to just one from Raducanu.
But the biggest difference was Anisimova’s serve. In the opener, she won over 87 per cent of the points once she landed her first serve, which she did almost two-thirds of the time, while Raducanu could only land it less than half the time and without the same threat. Far too often, it was aimed at the dangerous Anisimova backhand, which allowed her to take control of the point.
Raducanu’s serve had been a liability all season, giving up an average of four breaks a match before Indian Wells, and it had looked more secure against Zakharova with a modified action, but the problems returned in force in the third round. Across the entire contest, she won just six points on her first serve.
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“When I’m playing someone who’s at the top like that, I think they have an extra 10 miles an hour on their serve than me,” Raducanu said to the BBC.
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