Italian Open: Emma Raducanu pays for wasted chances as Coco Gauff storms into quarter-finals

Emma Raducanu’s run at the Italian Open comes to an end in the fourth round as the Briton is thrashed by fourth seed Coco Gauff in straight sets.

Emma Raducanu‘s valiant run at the Italian Open came to an end in the fourth round as she fell to a straight-sets defeat against a merciless Coco Gauff.

The British number two had secured statement wins over Maya Joint, Jil Teichmann and Veronika Kudermetova to reach the last 16, but the challenge posed by the fourth seed proved too stiff to overcome.

Gauff surged to a 6-1 6-2 victory over Raducanu in just one hour and 19 minutes, thus securing her 15th win at the Italian Open, the joint second-most of any woman before the age of 22.

Gauff meant business from the start as she broke Raducanu in her opening service game, although she subsequently let three set points slip before Raducanu brought up the chance to break back.

However, the world number 49 could not make the most of that opening as Gauff took a 1-0 lead on her fifth set point, before quickly taking control of the second and storming into a 5-2 lead.

Raducanu saved the American’s first match point with a fizzing forehand return, but Gauff made no mistake on her second attempt and will meet either Clara Tauson or Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals.

Raducanu failed to put away any of the three break points she fashioned, but a fourth-round appearance nevertheless represents her best WTA 1000 result on clay, a promising omen ahead of her first French Open appearance since 2022.