Emma Raducanu gives her verdict after thrilling defeat against Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon

Emma Raducanu confirmed she will take plenty of confidence from her compelling contest against world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in front of an enthralled Centre Court crowd at Wimbledon, even though she was beaten 7-6(6), 6-4.

The first set of this entertaining contest took 74 minutes, with Raducanu saving seven set points and creating one of her own before eventually losing out.

She was then 4-2 ahead and has chances to move to 5-2 in the second set before Sabalenka powered to victory.

This was a hugely encouraging performance from Raducanu, who has struggled to compete against the game’s top players in the last couple of years and she confirmed the performance will fuel her belief.

“It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top,” said Raducanu.

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“Having a match like that where I had chances in both sets, it does give me confidence. At the same time, it’s very difficult to take right now.

“It gives me confidence that I’m not as far away as I perhaps thought before the tournament. I think before previously when I was playing those top-5 players, it was pretty convincing, the loss.

“To really push Aryna to the top, it gives me confidence. But at the same time, like, I feel like grass for me is a great surface. It’s a bit of a leveller in that sense. So I think taking it onto a different surface, where it’s a lot more lively in America is another challenge in itself.

“Positives were that I was toe to toe with her. Before the match, I actually went into this match feeling more confident than in previous matches against the top, but I think there is a big difference in the first serve.

“I think that’s something that I need to improve on. I don’t know. I’m, like, always quite critical, so I probably will just, like, right now come off and tell you all the things that I could do better. I think the good things,

“I took my chances when it was there. I didn’t execute all the time, but I think I returned really well considering she’s got one of the best serves in the game. But yeah, I need to work on my own serve.”

Raducanu’s upbeat press conference also included a stinging criticism of the Hawk-Eye line-calling system that has been introduced to replace line judges this year at the Championships.

She was convinced a key call was out and suggested this was not the first time she had been a victim of a ball line call.

“That call was for sure out,” declared Raducanu. “It’s kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part, they’ve been okay.

“It’s just, like, I’ve had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. So yeah, I don’t know. Hopefully, they can kind of fix that.”

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