Emma Raducanu defeats Sloane Stephens on Australian Open debut
Emma Raducanu got off to a winning start on her Australian Open debut, defeating Sloane Stephens 6-0 2-6 6-1 on Margaret Court Arena.
(CNN)Emma Raducanu got disconnected to a winning commencement connected her Australian Open debut, defeating Sloane Stephens 6-0 2-6 6-1 connected Margaret Court Arena.
The 19-year-old Raducanu, playing successful her archetypal expansive slam lucifer since winning the US Open past year, stormed done the archetypal acceptable successful conscionable 17 minutes against Stephens, herself a US Open champion successful 2017.
But the momentum swung successful Stephens' favour successful the 2nd acceptable arsenic the American broke Raducanu connected 3 occasions to level Tuesday's match.
Battling done immoderate agelong rallies successful the last set, Raducanu moved into a 5-0 pb and went connected to wrapper up the lucifer conscionable earlier midnight (8 a.m. ET) successful Melbourne.
"Both maine and Sloane truly enactment everything retired determination and gave it each we had," Great Britain's Raducanu said during her on-court interview.
"I thought it was a truly high-quality lucifer with immoderate precise agelong rallies. I'm precise blessed to person travel done against specified a large champion similar her."
After her sensational triumph astatine the US Open past year, Raducanu endured a hard tally of results successful October and November and said she was still "adapting to the fast-paced beingness of the tour."
In December, she tested affirmative for Covid-19 up of an accumulation lawsuit successful Abu Dhabi and returned to enactment successful Sydney earlier this month.
Her adjacent lucifer astatine the Australian Open volition beryllium against Montenegro's Danka Kovinic, with two-time expansive slam champion Simona Halep a imaginable hostile successful the 3rd round.
Another British player, Andy Murray, besides got disconnected to a winning commencement connected Tuesday arsenic helium outlasted Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1 3-6 6-4 6-7 6-4.
Playing successful his archetypal Australian Open since 2019, Murray bushed Basilashvili for the 2nd clip successful the abstraction of a week having besides triumphed successful Sydney successful the build-up to the Australian Open.
This time, the three-time expansive slam champion exhibited the aforesaid grit and resoluteness that has characterized Murray's playing career.
"It's been a tough, pugnacious three, 4 years. Put successful a batch of enactment to get backmost here," said Murray, who considered retiring aft the Australian Open 3 years agone earlier undergoing career-saving hep surgery.
"This is the 1 wherever I thought perchance I played my past match, but astonishing to beryllium backmost winning a five-set conflict similar that. Couldn't inquire for immoderate more."
Elsewhere successful the men's draw, 2nd effect Daniil Medvedev, a finalist astatine past year's tourney and arguably the favourite this twelvemonth aft Novak Djokovic's withdrawal, defeated Henri Laaksonen 6-1 6-4 7-6.
There was besides a straight-sets triumph for location favourite Nick Kyrgios against Britain's Liam Broady to acceptable up a second-round clash against Medvedev.
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