Britain's teenage sensation Emma Raducanu has cleared a dangerous first-round hurdle at the Australian Open, seeing off experienced American Sloane Stephens 6-0 2-6 6-1 in a topsy-turvy contest.
Raducanu rocketed to fame in September with a fairytale run to the US Open title as a qualifier, without dropping a set in only her fourth senior tournament. At Melbourne, she raced through the opening set in 17 minutes, leaking only four points.
But former world No.3 and 2017 US Open champion Stephens finally found her rhythm and range to take charge of the second set from 2-2, reeling off four games, as errors began creeping into 17th seed's game.
At that point, it looked ominous for Raducanu, 19, whose build-up to her Australian Open debut was hardly ideal, catching COVID-19 and suffering a heavy defeat in her opening match at Sydney.
But she showed the same coolness under pressure that swept her to the title at New York, settling down and finding another gear to dominate the decider with some precision baseline hitting, as Stephens unravelled again.
Stephens avoided another rout, holding serve at 0-5, but there were no more twists on a sparsely-populated Margaret Court, as Raducanu closed out the win on serve, despite a sixth double-fault on her first matchpoint.
Despite the second-set wobble, Raducanu made an encouraging start and she will be heavily fancied against 99th-ranked Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in the second round.
"It was a tough match-up for a first round," says Raducanu, under the eye of new coach Torben Beltz. "Her athleticism is right up there, so I'm just happy to get through.
"In the first set, I played some great tennis with very few errors. Of course, there was going to be some adversity and I was happy to regroup in the third set.
"I don't think the score reflected the match, as I was really feeling it."
When Raducanu belted away a forehand winner on the opening point of the match and pocketed the first set without breaking sweat, it seemed she had just carried on from where she left off when beating Leylah Fernandez at Flushing Meadows.
Her life has been a whirlwind existence since that momentous day for the youngster and the spotlight has been firmly on her as the Australian Open loomed.
A 6-0 6-1 defeat by Elena Rybakina at Sydney - her only competitive match before the Open - was a reality check and when her level dropped alarmingly in the second set, albeit with Stephens upping her own game, alarm bells were ringing.
With more experience of deciding sets at Grand Slams, the odds had switched towards Stephens, whose world ranking of 67 does no justice to her pedigree.
But Raducanu showed the better game management, cutting out the errors to seize the initiative early, before romping home to take her winning streak in Grand Slams - including US Open qualifying - to 11.
Reuters
