Emma Raducanu took two medical timeouts as she went down to a painful three-set defeat against Lin Zhu at the Ningbo Open on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old fell victim to the extreme Wuhan heat and was forced to retire from her first-round match against Ann Li last week.

On Tuesday, Raducanu took a medical timeout on two separate occasions in difficult conditions, and had nothing left to give in the third set of her 3-6 6-4 6-1 defeat to world No 219 Zhu.

It could now spell the end of Raducanu’s season, despite the British No 1 scheduled to play at the Hong Kong Open, which starts on October 27 – live on Sky Sports Tennis.

In a first set which included five breaks of serve, Raducanu eventually stumbled across the line on her fifth set point after 55 minutes.

Raducanu was without coach Francis Roig and renowned German physio and fitness trainer Daniel Pohl in China, but she did have hitting partner Alexis Canter encouraging her from the sidelines.

She was forced to take a timeout in the eighth game of the second set with the doctor and physio checking her vitals with Zhu taking advantage to send the contest into a deciding set.

The former US Open champion appeared uncomfortable and held her lower back in pain early in the deciding set before calling for the physio once again.

Raducanu managed to carry on, despite being in discomfort, but her movement was restricted and she soon went down to defeat.

The Brit has seen a resurgence in form, and she has been rewarded with a rise in the WTA Tour rankings – currently 29th – meaning Raducanu will be seeded at the Australian Open in January.

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