Emma Raducanu has progressed to the second spherical of the Korean Open after defeating Peyton Stearns in straight units on Tuesday.
Raducanu, taking part in for the primary time since her first-round defeat to Sofia Kenin on the US Open, got here by way of a troublesome contest in opposition to the American, who’s ranked No. 48 on this planet.
Each units went to tie breaks and it was removed from a simple affair for the British world No. 70, who was visibly exhausted on the finish of the second set after a match that lasted two hours and 43 minutes.
Stearns and Raducanu each struggled to carry serve, every being damaged six instances, with the tie breaks hinging on some highly effective baseline hitting from the 2021 US Open winner.
“I am proud to have made it by way of to the following spherical. It was powerful. It was very humid, the ball was bouncing round loads,” Raducanu mentioned after the win.
“It was a tricky match to get by way of. I have never performed many matches in the previous few months and Peyton, she’s a very good participant and on actually good type. I am actually happy.”
Raducanu did not qualify robotically for the match in Seoul however was handed a lifeline when Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Elena Rybakina, Karolina Pliskova and Emma Navarro all withdrew from the competitors.
She’s going to now face Yue Yuan within the spherical of 16, a stern take a look at given the Chinese language participant’s world rating of No. 40.
