LONDON: Emma Raducanu brushed aside Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-0 to advance to the second round of the Eastbourne International on Tuesday in a battle between former US Open champions.

British number one Katie Boulter, who defeated compatriot Raducanu on the way to retaining her Nottingham Open title this month, overcame Croatia’s Petra Martic 6-1, 7-6 (10/8).

Raducanu recovered from being broken twice in the first set before demolishing her opponent in the second set to set up a second-round match against world number five Jessica Pegula.

Raducanu, who won the US Open as a qualifier in 2021, has slipped to 168th in the world after an injury-plagued 2023 season.

The 21-year-old missed the French Open but returned to competition in Nottingham earlier this month, where she reached the semi-finals.

“I think for me it was the case of adapting to the court,” said Raducanu, who has been given a wild card for Wimbledon, which starts on July 1.

“I’ve never played in Eastbourne, I’ve never played on this centre court and every court plays a little bit differently. In the beginning, I was trying to figure out what was the best way for me to play and use my game.”

Stephens, who won the US Open in 2017, broke first for a 3-2 lead but failed to hold serve for the rest of the match.

Raducanu, after saving two break points to hold for 5-4, broke the American for a third time to seal the first set and then sprinted to the finish line, completing victory in 76 minutes.

Boulter, 27, who was beaten by Martic at the same stage 12 months ago, cruised through the first set and then battled back from 5-1 down in a tense second-set tiebreak to progress.

“That was a little stressful, a little bit more dramatic than I hoped it would be,” said Boulter, who will face 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the last 16.

“I played a tiebreak a couple of weeks ago which I didn’t come on the winning end of and I had that in the back of my head when I was playing that one there. I’m just very happy to be through that.”

Also in first-round action on England’s south coast, Elise Mertens beat Yuriko Miyazaki 6-1, 6-2 while Ashlyn Krueger overcame Viktorija Golubic 6-1, 6-7 (7/9), 7-5.

In the men’s tournament, Britain’s Cameron Norrie continued his poor run of form, losing his first-round match against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori 7-6 (11/9), 6-3.

Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild also advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Australia’s James McCabe to set up a second-round showdown with top seed Taylor Fritz.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2024