The Francisco Roig era of Emma Raducanu’s career began with another positive performance, on an oppressively hot Saturday afternoon at the Cincinnati Open, as the 30th seed demonstrated her consistency and durability by defeating Olga Danilovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 to comfortably move into the third round of the WTA 1000 event.
Raducanu’s progress over the past year has been driven by her reliability against inferior opponents and she is now 19-4 against lower-ranked players over the past year. Having spent much of the past four years struggling to string together matches, she is as match tough as she has ever been.
A far greater test awaits Raducanu, who had received a first round bye due to her status as a seeded player, in round three. A Wimbledon rematch is guaranteed as she will either face the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, her conqueror in the third round, or the 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, who Raducanu defeated in round two this summer.
During her first and only appearance in Cincinnati two years ago, where she dismantled Serena Williams in the final month of her career and Victoria Azarenka in consecutive matches, Raducanu showed that the faster courts here suit her game well. This time, however, she had the oppressive heat and humidity to deal with. The pair entered Champions Court in 30C (85F) heat plus considerable humidity.
Things did not begin particularly well. Raducanu opened the match with three loose unforced errors and a double fault to immediately lose her opening service game to love. An ultra-offensive lefty with a big serve and forehand but poor movement, Danilovic’s constant aggression allowed the Serb to dictate the majority of the early exchanges. In the opening games, Raducanu was forced to scrap behind the baseline, chasing down balls and trying to elicit unforced errors from her opponent for much of the opening set.
However, Raducanu returned brilliantly from the beginning, consistently landing returns deep and refusing Danilovic the short balls she was looking for behind her first serve. Raducanu also defended well, maintaining her depth and patiently looking for opportunities to take the ball early and attack. In the face of Raducanu’s point-by-point intensity, Danilovic’s error count rose throughout.
After struggling with her serve early on, Raducanu gradually grew in confidence behind her first serve. From her uncertain position behind the baseline, she ended a composed, efficient performance striking the ball early and putting Danilovic’s laboured movement under constant pressure as she eased into the next round.
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One year after missing most of the US hardcourt swing, including the Cincinnati Open, before her first round loss at the US Open, Raducanu is in quite a different position. Her time in the US began with two positive showings, reaching the semi-finals of the WTA 500 event in Washington DC before winning two rounds last week in Montreal. Now she will have another opportunity to test her level against one of the best players in the world.
