EMMA RADUCANU struggled with a stomach bug during a marathon second-round loss to Wang Yafan at the Australian Open.

The former US Open champion, playing only her fourth match since returning from eight months out and three surgeries, had battled back strongly from a set and a break-down to force a decider.

But Raducanu then began to show a lot of discomfort, clutching at her chest and abdomen before calling the trainer two games in.

She had her blood pressure checked and took some pills before resuming, and she battled hard to try to turn the match around but Wang held firm to win 6-4 4-6 6-4 after two hours and 55 minutes.

It appeared Raducanu was struggling with her breathing, but she revealed in her press conference that she was feeling sick having gone into the contest under the weather.

“I think I just had a bit of a stomach bug beforehand,” she said. “Now I feel a little bit better. I had some time.

“During the match, third set, I was 30-0 up serving. Then all of a sudden I just felt so sick, just really weak and nauseous. Throughout the third set, I think everyone could see it was a bit of a battle.

“Like physically, body-wise, I felt fine. It was more I was throwing up in my mouth. Then after the match, it came out. Now I’m OK. I’ll get over it. It just sucks with the timing.

“I was actually feeling good about my tennis. Mentally, I don’t know why, I just felt really composed the entire time. Even in the first set when I was making a ton of errors with the wind, I kind of always had this feeling that I was coming back, just tidy up the errors. I felt pretty composed throughout.”

Raducanu is no stranger to medical time-outs and retirements, but she was determined to keep going this time.

“I’ve been in that situation before in matches, whether it was with illness or injury, and retired a few times,” she said.

“With what I went through last year, you feel awful right now, at some points I couldn’t really see the ball very well, but I think it’s made me so much tougher.

“There was no way I was going to pull out. She was going to have to beat me, and she did. She served it out.”

Raducanu’s exit followed those of Katie Boulter and Jack Draper and means Cameron Norrie, who battled from two sets down earlier to beat Giulio Zeppieri, is the only British player through to the third round.