Emma Raducanu didn’t hide that it was all but an easy day at the office for her in the Seoul first round but felt “proud” afterward after overcoming challenging conditions and a very tricky opponent.
On Tuesday, the British tennis star kicked off her Asian swing by edging out 48th-ranked Peyton Stearns 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) in a rollercoaster that lasted two hours and 43 minutes.
Throughout the match, there wasn’t much consistency on either side but in the end, it was the 2021 US Open champion who managed to come out on top in hot and humid Seoul conditions.
Also, it should be noted that Raducanu had leads in both sets – but things got complicated – before she ultimately found a way to close out the sets.
“I’m proud to have made it through to the next round. Thank you to everyone for sticking around and watching us. It was tough, it was very humid, the balls were bouncing around a lot. It was a tough match to get through. I haven’t played many matches in the last few months and Peyton is a really good player in really good form, so I’m pretty pleased,” the 21-year-old Briton said after the match.
Raducanu had to work hard before getting the job done
In the first set, the former world No. 10 blew a 4-1 double-break lead before also failing to serve out for the opener in the 12th game after missing out on two set points.
The start of the tie-break didn’t look promising for Raducanu either but she managed to recover from a 1-3 deficit by taking the next five points and later converting her fourth set point.
Up by a set, Raducanu also got the first break of the second set in the eighth game to go 5-3 up. But instead of serving out for the match, the 21-year-old suffered back-to-back breaks and found herself inches away from seeing the clash go into a decider.
But luckily for the Briton, she managed to break back Stearns and then earn and realize her second match point to complete a two-set win.
Raducanu plays next against eighth-seeded Yua Yuan.