Emma Raducanu raised new worries about her fitness before Wimbledon as she lost to Aussie teenager Maya Joint in three thrilling sets at the Eastbourne Open. The British No.1 looked to be struggling with her back injury as she lost eight games out of nine in the middle of the match and trailed 2-5 in the decider. She showed great grit to stop the Aussie No.2 serving out the match three times to force a tiebreak before going down to a 4-6 6-1 7-6 defeat on the south coast.

Raducanu, 22, pulled out of the Berlin Open last week after a recurrence of her back spasms and revealed she received some “pretty bad news” on the eve of this tournament. And she looked in repeated physical discomfort during her final match before her home Grand Slam starts on Monday despite battling until the end. The former US Open winner suffered the spasms before the Australian and French Open and was having acupuncture to treat the pain in Paris and here.

World No.51 Joint repeatedly slipped during only her second pro match on grass but broke the Raducanu serve seven times and outpowered her with the weight of her groundstrokes.

Raducanu had beaten world No.5 Jessica Pegula after saving a match point on her way to the quarter-finals here last year.

But Joint looks like a potential future top-10 player after beating former Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur in her first ever pro match on grass in the first round before knocking out the former US Open champion. Raducanu had beaten the Rabat champion in their previous meeting on the clay in Rome last month.

In a rollercoaster first set, American-born Joint made a break in Raducanu’s opening service with a forehand winner to lead 2-0. But the British No.1 broke straight back when she took her third break point with a backhand winner down the line.

And at 3-3, the home favourite took a second break point when Joint’s forehand hit the net to lead 4-3. But the Aussie levelled with another break when she put away a forehand swing volley.

Raducanu then made a third consecutive break when Joint sent a forehand long - and the No.7 seed took her first set point when the Aussie sent a forehand slice wide.

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The second set started in a similar fashion to the first with Joint breaking to lead 2-0 when Raducanu sent a forehand long. But time the Aussie No.2 dominated the set. The British No.2 needed to save two break points to go 0-4 down before Joint’s forehand drop shot hit the net for the hold at 1-3.

But with Raducanu then serving at 1-4, she was given a time violation on break point before steering her backhand into the net for a double break. In a strange end to the set, Raducanu was facing three set points at 5-1 40-0 and made little effort to reach a forehand down the middle.

Raducanu was broken in the opening game of the final set when she followed a double fault with a framed backhand wide of the court.

At 3-2, the British No.1 forced her first break points since the 10th game of the first set but Joint saved all three. The third was saved with a forehand cross-court winner which Raducanu could not reach.

The Aussie No.2 took the double break to lead 5-2 when Raducanu hit an inside-out forehand long. The world No.38 showed fight by stopping Joint serving out the match at the first attempt by breaking her with a backhand pass.

And she denied the Aussie a second time at 4-5 when she broke her to love when a forehand crosscourt hit the corner of the baseline and sideline.

But at 5-5, Raducanu was broken again when Joint hit a forehand winner down the line on a short ball. And she stopped Joint serving out the match for a third time when she hit a forehand winner down the line to force the tiebreak.

At 6-4, the Aussie took her first match point with an ace after two hours and 33 minutes.

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