After a stream of winners and plenty of smiles, Emma Raducanu offered a succinct verdict on her first WTA singles match at Queen’s Club. “Very clean and clinical,” she said.
Indeed it was. Her Spanish opponent, Cristina Bucșa, is among the more streetwise players in the WTA Tour mid-ranks. But she had no answers as Raducanu raced to a 6-1, 6-2 victory in just over an hour.
“I was quite locked in today, so I’m very pleased with my performance,” Raducanu said, before admitting that trying to be happy on court was part of a broader strategy to help her play better.
“Going on to the court laughing at certain shots, or if I’m smiling if I have pulled off a great shot, it does help relax you,” she said.
“I play my best when my personality is put on the court and I can express myself, and I feel like sometimes when I’ve been constrained to play a certain way, it hasn’t necessarily worked. I just need to be free and expressive, and then certain moments of creativity can come up.”
Tougher tests lie ahead, starting on Thursday with the world No 41, Rebecca Sramkova, in the last 16. But for a player who confessed to having “pretty low expectations” just two days ago, there is plenty in Raducanu’s game that appears to be trending in the right direction.
The first serve was crisp; the movement sharp. There were few signs of a back spasm that interrupted her preparations last week, even if Raducanu said afterwards that she was still managing the problem. “It was one of those days that you feel really good on the court. Sometimes you don’t necessarily feel like that, but when you do have that feeling, you need to capitalise.”
And she did. After the players traded early service holds, Raducanu broke to lead 3-1 with a deft backhand volley after dragging her opponent across the court before racing through the first set in 25 minutes. While Bucșa put up slightly more resistance in the second, a sharp cross-court backhand put a bow on a very impressive performance.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous before the match,” Raducanu said. “The way I overcame that was a great achievement. I also moved really well, considering I haven’t necessarily had much time on the grass.
“But I think the biggest thing was that I started the point really well today: serve and return. It was very clean and clinical. I wasn’t giving away too many free points, and also got quite a few good setups and good points from my serve.”
This year Raducanu had endured a shock defeat against Bucșa in the first round of the Singapore Open. But from early on at Queen’s Club there was only going to be one winner.
“When I saw her name in the draw, knowing that it was going to be a difficult match really focused me,” Raducanu said. “With her defence and her slices, it can stay low and shoot on this surface. But I was very, very sharp. I wanted to get every point and score as many as I could, because I lost to her earlier in the year, and I know how tricky she can be.”
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Earlier in the day Katie Boulter had to struggle hard to defeat her Australian opponent Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 and squeeze into the last 16, where she will play the Russian Diana Shnaider.
Tomljanovic is no slouch on grass, having reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon twice. But in a match that featured 13 breaks of serve, Boulter kept her composure and produced her best tennis in the final set to see the match out.
“I knew it was going to be a really tough battle,” Boulter said. “She’s someone who’s got a lot of credibility on these courts. She’s just such a tough competitor. She played really well today, very aggressive, which made it very tough for me. But sometimes the biggest wins are these ones, because they’re the ones that give you the confidence”
Heather Watson became the fourth Briton to reach the last 16, joining Raducanu, Boulter and Sonay Kartal, with an impressive and unexpected 6-4, 6-3 win against Yulia Putintseva.
“It’s such a great event so far, and I’m really enjoying playing here, playing on these courts at this amazing club, and staying at home, sleeping in my own bed,” said the 33-year-old, who faces the former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina on Thursday.
