Emma Raducanu appeared to be in tears midway through the opening set of her first round match at the Korean Open, which she managed to win in straight sets.
The former US Open champion battled past Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 6-4, 6-3 in a match that was delayed by a day due to the adverse weather conditions in Seoul. Raducanu struggled with her game during stages of her latest match, getting broken three times and winning only 13 out of 34 points behind her second serve.
Although the talking point occurred midway through the first set, when the Brit was seen to be in tears, which was presumably caused by the conditions and her performance. However, Raducanu turned her fortunes around when trailing 1-3 by winning five games in a row. Then in the second frame, she had to come back from a break down twice before closing the match out with a three-game winning streak.
“I’m super happy to have won today,” Raducanu said in her on-court interview.
“It hasn’t been easy, I feel like I’ve played this match the last three days so to pull through after waiting I’m super pleased with how I came through.
“She’s a really tough opponent, tough conditions, very slow rallies and long points so happy to have gone through.”
Raducanu is making her third main draw appearance at the Korean Open, where she reached the semi-finals in 2022. She has now recorded 36 wins over top 50 players on the Tour and is 5-0 against players from Romania.
The 22-year-old will next take on two-time Grand Slam winner Barbora Krejčíková, who dropped just three games during her 6-1, 6-2 win over Tatiana Prozorova in her opening match on Tuesday. The winner of that match could then face top seed Iga Swiatek in the last eight.
Raducanu is bidding to win her first WTA title since the 2021 US Open.
