Emma Raducanu tears up after error-strewn French Open first-round defeat

“The first set happened super quickly, and it’s not a nice feeling, you know, when the points and the games are going, like, very, very fast,” Raducanu said. “I’m glad at least in the second set I was able to get a few games on the board.”

The second set was a marked improvement, and the British No 1 rallied from 4-1 down rather than capitulating entirely, as she has done previously when facing a similar scoreline. While Sierra might not be the same calibre as Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina or Iga Swiatek, who have been at the other end of the court on those occasions, it is worth noting that this is only her second match in more than two months and on her least favoured surface.

Her unforced error count remained high, as she hit 27 in the second set, but Raducanu also hit 15 winners and took six out of nine break points.

It was a dogged effort to drag herself back into the match on two occasions, at 4-1 down in the second set and then again at 5-1 down in the tie-break to give herself a chance at 4-5.

It has been a difficult season overall for Raducanu, who missed more than two months citing the after-effects of a viral illness she contracted playing in Cluj in November. While the majority of that has cleared, she was noticeably coughing into her towel at one point during the opening round match in Paris.

It was when the question was put to her about the number of injury and illness setbacks she faced and the mindset needed to continue that Raducanu became emotional and, with tears in her eyes, said: “It’s very difficult. I think you need a lot of resilience. I think I’m trying my best each day, and I think that’s all I can ask of myself.”