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 via a tough contest towards the American, who’s ranked No. 48 on the planet.
Each units went to tie breaks and it was removed from an easy 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 occasions, with the tie breaks hinging on some highly effective baseline hitting from the 2021 US Open winner.
“I am proud to have made it via to the subsequent spherical. It was robust. It was very humid, the ball was bouncing round loads,” Raducanu mentioned after the win.
“It was a tricky match to get via. I have not performed many matches in the previous few months and Peyton, she’s a extremely 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 is 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.