Emma Raducanu’s dominant form at the Cincinnati Open ended as seventh seed Jessica Pegula proved a sharp step up in class for the British number one.
Raducanu had trounced veterans Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, but lost 7-5 6-4 to Pegula in the last 16.
Now the 19-year-old switches her focus to defending her crown at the US Open, which starts in New York on August 29.
Cameron Norrie continued the British interest by beating Ben Shelton to reach the men’s quarter-finals.
British men’s number one Norrie, seeded ninth, won 6-0 6-2 against the teenage American wildcard as the gulf between the pair showed.
Norrie, who beat Andy Murray in the previous round, secured victory in just 57 minutes and will play Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, who is seeded third, in the quarter-finals.
Following her defeat by Pegula, Raducanu said her time in Cincinnati had shown that making mistakes is not necessarily a step backwards.
“In the past year it’s one of the few tournaments that I have started going for my shots more,” she said.
“This week I was like, ‘look, I’m just going to try, I don’t care if I make errors, it’s fine, I’m just going to overhit if anything’.
“I’m pretty proud of how I did this week, it’s a great step to move forward.”. (BBC Sport)