Australian Taylah Preston, world No 204, wins 6-2, 6-4
Raducanu could face Sabalenka early in Melbourne
Emma Raducanu ended her preparations for the Australian Open with a miserable 6-2, 6-4 defeat by Taylah Preston, a 20-year-old Australian wildcard, in the quarter-finals of the Hobart international.
As the top seed in Hobart, a small WTA 250 tournament, Raducanu had entered the tournament with a real opportunity to compete for an elusive second career WTA title since her win at the US Open more than four years ago. Instead, the challenging rainy conditions were seemingly all it took to unsettle the Briton, who put in a dismal performance on Thursday evening. Her defeat against Preston, the WTA No 204, is her fourth-worst defeat by ranking since 2021.
In an afternoon filled with various frustrating rain delays, the players were only on court for about 10 minutes before they had to return to the locker room with Raducanu trailing 1-2. Upon the restart, the 23-year-old was in awful form, spraying careless unforced errors from all parts of the court. Despite playing so passively, Preston was able to dictate many of the baseline exchanges.
