Emma Raducanu closes in on big rankings milestone after a battling win in Rome
Anyone questioning Emma Raducanu’s eagerness to scrap for a victory needed to witness her impressive triumph against hugely promising teenager Maya Joint at the Italian Open.
With her long-time mentor Jane O’Donoghue offering support from the stands as her part-time coach Mark Petchey was unavailable due to broadcast commitments with the Tennis Channel, Raducanu fought hard to bounce back from the disappointment of losing the second set to win 7-5, 6-7[1], 6-3.
She stormed clear in the third set of the match before being pegged back by Joint, but managed to come up with some huge points when she needed them to close out the match and set up a second round encounter against No 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova.
“I think the level was really high today, Maya played so aggressively,” Raducanu told Sky Sports. “I’m really proud of how I came through.
“I found it so hard this morning, the wait and the rain and the delay. Really proud of how I came back in the match.”
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Raducanu raised her levels at the start of the third set and this win provided encouraging evidence that she appears to be finding her feet on a clay court.
Her power-packed ground shots and eagerness to attack the second serve of Joint at every opportunity put her youthful opponent under pressure and Raducanu got the rewards she was waiting for as she found a way to win.
She is now up to No 45 in the live WTA Rankings and with Katie Boulter losing her opening match at the Italian Open against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, there is a chance she could be usurped as British No 1 by either Raducanu or a fast-rising Sonay Kartal in the coming days.
Raducanu would need to win a couple more matches to get close to Boulter in the rankings, but there is a good chance she will move ahead of her by the time the grass court season gets underway if she continues to pick up wins on clay courts.
Raducanu will have high hopes heading into her next match against Alexandrova, after she beat the Russian player in the opening round of the Australian Open in January of this year.
She then lost against her in Qatar, but this has to be seen as a good chance for Raducanu to reach the third round of a WTA 1000 clay court tournament for the first time in her career.
Petchey’s absence from the win against Joint is evidence of the challenging nature of their coaching set-up, with his commitments to the Tennis Channel set to continue despite Raducanu’s eagerness to add him to her team.
She has admitted the current set-up is not ideal and that was highlighted by her lack of coaching advice from Petchey in the win against Joint.
Kartal may be the dark horse in the race for the British No 1 spot after she won her opening match at the Italian Open as she has limited ranking points to defend until the WTA Tour gets into the grass court season next month.
After a stunning rise up the rankings in recent months, Kartal will break into the top 50 if she beats Linda Noskova from the Czech Republic in her next match in Rome.
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