The British No 1 lost to the fifth seed 7-5 6-4 in a 91-minute match; elsewhere at the Jasmin Open in Monastir, British No 2 Harriet Dart beat Spain's Nuria Parrizas Diaz 6-2 6-4
Tuesday 4 October 2022 17:04, UK
Emma Raducanu has been knocked out of the Agel Open in the first round after a 7-5 6-4 defeat by fifth seed Daria Kasatkina.
Kasatkina will now move on and face either Seoul champion Ekaterina Alexandrova or Victoria Azarenka in the second round with third seed Anett Kontaveit a potential quarter-final opponent.
Raducanu will next return to the Transylvania Open in Romania from October 10, where she reached the quarter-finals last year.
There was no sign of any strapping after Raducanu withdrew during her semi-final against Jelena Ostapenko in Korea a week and a half ago with another muscle injury.
And the British No 1 produced some good moments against her Russian opponent, ranked 11th in the world and one of the game's best defenders, but she paid for too many errors.
Raducanu recovered from a loose start to lead 3-2 in the first set, and looked to be the one applying more pressure until Kasatkina broke through to lead 5-4.
Raducanu responded well with a break of her own only to drop serve again, and this time Kasatkina clinched the set.
The second set was again tight, but Raducanu snatched at several shots in a poor service game to drop serve at 2-2 and was unable to get back on level terms.
There was better news for British No 2 Harriet Dart, who was a 6-2 6-4 winner against Spain's Nuria Parrizas Diaz at the Jasmin Open in Monastir, Tunisia.
