Marta Kostyuk (27) faced defeat in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament held in Washington, losing to British player Emma Raducanu (46).

The match lasted 1 hour and 56 minutes and ended with a score of 7:6(4), 6:4.

When Kostyuk is not at her best, her level of play resembles a sine wave. In the first half of the opening set, Marta had break points on every one of Raducanu's serves but converted only one and immediately lost her own serve. She then had to scramble to save her own games.

Kostyuk managed to take the match to a tie-break, where she quickly fell behind 0:4, leveled the score, but then lost three consecutive points.

In the second set, the British player led 3:0 and 4:1, but Marta managed to tie it at four. However, another dip in form led to a loss at 4:6.

Throughout the match, Kostyuk hit three aces, made 7 double faults, and achieved 2 breaks. Her opponent recorded 2 aces, 4 faults on serve, and 3 breaks.

Mubadala City DC Open – WTA 500

Washington, USA, hard court

Prize Money:  $1,064,510

First Round, July 22

Emma Raducanu (Great Britain) – Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine) 7:6(4), 6:4

This was the fourth meeting between the rivals, and the British player leveled the head-to-head at 2:2. In the next round, Raducanu will play against the winner of the match between Naomi Osaka (51, Japan) and Yulia Putintseva (43, Kazakhstan).

This marks Kostyuk's sixth consecutive loss at WTA events; her last victory was over Leylah Fernandez on May 11 at the Rome Masters.

It is worth noting that Kostyuk recently expressed her thoughts on her prospects for the upcoming US Open.