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Emma Raducanu's final pre-Wimbledon tune-up came to a premature end at the hands of fiery Australian teenager Maya Joint, with the British No1 despated 6-4, 1-6, 6-7 (4-7) at Eastbourne on Wednesday afternoon.
The second-round clash was the players' second meeting in two months after Raducanu got the better of Joint at the Italian Open in May, but the 19-year-old tasted sweet revenge on the south coast as she schooled the former US Open champion on home soil.
After a blustery two-hour-and-eighteen-minute slog against Ann Li produced gritted-teeth tennis from Raducanu on Tuesday, bright sunshine the following day at first produced spells of more confident movement from the Briton, and bigger smiles. Raducanu even paused her service game to stifle a laugh when one spectator called out that hitting one of the omnipresent seagulls would win her an extra point.
Although testing Joint - who will not remember their close-run three-set encounter in Rome last month with fondness - from the off, Raducanu was put on the backfoot in the early stages of the tie as the Australian looked more-than ready for their second meeting this year.
But from two games down, Raducanu exposed the cracks in Joint's backhand as she fired crosscourt bullets at her, winning an immediate break back, before capping her subsequent hold with an fearless ace.
Looking increasingly threatening made up for continuing concerns over Raducanu's physicality. Still not looking as free as she did two weeks ago at Queen's, Joint was able to exploit this on occasion, tempting Raducanu up to the net before passing her with a whipcrack forehand to put her ahead once again for 3-2.
Emma Raducanu was disappointed in a three-set battle against Maya Joint at Eastbourne
But as the wind returned to Devonshire Park's centre court, Raducanu showed off the array of other weapons she has at her disposal, first breaking Joint's serve as the Australian grappled with the breeze, and then keeping the pressure up to claim a final break by feasting on her rival's errors.
Hopes of Raducanu's momentum carrying into the second set however, were short lived, with her teenage opponent coming back from the break with renewed force.
As much as Joint struggled to get to grips with the surface, slipping the first time and falling to her feet in the third game of the second set, her willingness to chase down every ball came off her in waves and paid dividends.
Joint claimed a wonderful skidding point after Raducanu thought she might have stopped her with a popped volley at the net to bring up deuce, and slithered to the ground a third time in pursuit of a wide-angled forehand. Joint fell one more time before Raducanu could pull off the prolonged hold, but it was her first and last game in the set. When upright, Joint was in lethal form.
There was no pendulum swing in the third set either, as Raducanu quailed and sent over a double fault to set up an early break point. A blunt, looping backhand from Raducanu ballooned into the now-muted crowd to hand yet another game to Joint.
With the Australian No2 playing with bulletproof confidence, Raducanu was unable to gain a toehold and cut a cowed figure on the court, head dipped low and shoulders shrugged.
Joint continued to make light work of Raducanu's increasingly lightweight hitting, smacking one open-stanced forehand for a winner past a spent-looking Raducanu that may have been weighing on her rival's mind when she sat staring glumly at her coaching bench during the ensuing change of ends.
Still slipping deep in the third set, this time grasping for a forehand, Joint pulled off the necessary hold after saving three break points before grinding down Raducanu's next service game to go stretch her lead.
But Raducanu did well to stoke Joint's service nerves and win her first break back of the set just as the world No51 thought she had the tie in the bag. Buoyed up by a partisan crowd that she had relied on to carry her through her meeting with Li under challenging personal circumstances, Raducanu raised her level. Joint, as if caught off-guard, was bowled over as the Briton wrenched momentum back and swiped three games on the trot.
The Australian teenager played a ferocious second set and served for the match three times
All square at 5-5, Raducanu's luck seemed to come to an end as she tightened up on serve. Joint snuck up to the net to catch Raducanu's dropshot and send it ungettably past her for yet another break.
But there can be no faulting Raducanu's fight - or Joint's shakiness when she could have closed out the match on serve - and the Briton determinedly forced a winner-takes-all tiebreak.
Joint, who won the tiebreak that sandwiched Raducanu's sets in their Roman match-up, let out of a roar of frustration as she hit long to put her rival in front 3-2. Neither player looked truly at ease, and Raducanu could well blame the lack of breeze for not pushing the ball just over the net cord to fall on the right side and win her the ninth point for losing her the match, so closely matched were Joint and Raducanu at the last.
While Raducanu looked far from her physical peak at times, Joint's performance in just her second win on the surface this season - she beat former Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur in the first round - makes her Championships main draw debut next week a tantalising prospect. As long as she buys herself a new pair of shoes.
