Emma Raducanu's Madrid Open ends as Marta Kostyuk prevails in three-set thriller

Emma Raducanu's hopes of backing up her run from the Miami Open in Madrid have faltered with the Brit enduring a second round loss to Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

Raducanu reached the Quarter-Finals of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time in what was a things are looking up moment for her but won't repeat the feat in the Spanish capital.

Perhaps not a surprise with Raducanu admitting that she is still getting to grips with the surface against a player who has prowess on it. But it was a battle throughout.

Raducanu clawed her way back from 1-3 down to 3-3 only for two double faults seeing her drop serve immediately again. Kostyuk went on to take the opening set from there.

She received treatment to her right wrist ahead of the second set and Raducanu levelled the match with four games in a row. Raducanu had a poor start to the decider though and this set to the tone. She ended up losing the final set pretty comfortably after putting in the hard work to get there in the first place.

Elsewhere Anastasia Potapova upset eighth seed Zheng Qinwen 6-4, 6-4. It ended an unwanted run of 0-8 against top 10 players and was her best win this year.

Especially given she had to withdraw last week before she even had a chance to play against Aryna Sabalenka. She has put together two impressive wins on the spin seeing off Ashlyn Krueger in the first round before converting five out of nine break point chances against the eighth seed.

“This win doesn’t feel crazy and something out of this world,” Potapova said, “only because the last matches that we played it was such a battle, always the tiebreak was involved, over three hours. Maybe this gave me the feeling that I’m actually on the same level as her.

“I think it’s just the mindset that I can do it. I didn’t try to convince myself -- I knew it. That was the difference. In the key moments, I was not afraid of hitting the ball because I knew deep inside that it could be my match.”