At the end of a turbulent night in Rome, where another momentum shift was always around the corner, Emma Raducanu held off a spirited teenage opponent and quelled her own nerves to reach the second round of the Italian Open with a gritty 7-5, 6-7 (1), 6-3 win over Australia’s Maya Joint.
The victory marks Raducanu’s first win in Rome in just her second appearance at the event. In 2022, she was forced to retire in the first round against Bianca Andreescu. She will next face a familiar opponent in Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 21st seed, who she has already battled twice this year, winning once, in Australia.
“It was a really hard battle,” said Raducanu. “Maya played an amazing match and such a high level. And I think I did as well. I think that the overall level of the match was really high and she’s flown up the rankings. I mean, playing like this, I think she’s gonna go up really fast, really quick. I’m really proud of myself as well, because that was a great performance, I think, on all fronts.”
This could have been a less stressful evening for the 2021 US Open champion, who led 7-5, 5-3 before an impressive recovery from Joint. Raducanu handled her disappointment well, taking a bathroom break before the final set and producing her best stretch of attacking tennis to establish a 5-0 third-set lead. She eventually found herself down a break point at 5-3 before recovering. To her credit, despite how frequently the complexion of the match changed, Raducanu maintained her aggression and conviction until the end.
Having only worked through one full clay season in her career, Raducanu is still learning how adapt her game to the red clay. Although she has accrued a handful of solid wins on the surface, her losses to superior clay-court players have also exposed her difficulties with her movement on the surface.
“It gives me a lot of confidence because it’s not just clay – it’s at night, it’s heavy,” she said. “I think with the new balls, it was still flying, but the balls got old pretty quickly and it was very cold. So I’m really proud. I take a lot of confidence from this win, not just because I won, but I think the level in general was really high, and I think I was committing to my shots, which is what I said I wanted to do, and I was really going for it.”
This time, Raducanu found herself up against one of only three teenagers inside the WTA top 100. Joint was planning to compete in college and she enrolled in the University of Texas last year before her tennis career unexpectedly took off. She has climbed 606 ranking spots since the start of 2024 and now sits at a career high ranking of No 78. The 19-year-old reached the main draw in Rome with two solid qualifying victories this week.
Although Raducanu has been enthusiastic about her work with her ad-hoc coach Mark Petchey, this occasion underlined its logistical challenges. Petchey, a broadcaster for the Tennis Channel in Rome, was absent from her box, meaning her sole supporter during the match was Jane O’Donoghue.
Afterwards, Raducanu said he had been commentating on her match: “Petch, I think was on comms of my match, so I hope he was nice to me,” she said, laughing.
Elsewhere, Cameron Norrie took full advantage of his good fortune in Rome as he produced a solid performance to move into the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Christopher O’Connell of Australia.
Norrie, who is ranked No 91 in the world and trying to rebuild his form and ranking after a difficult 18 months on the tour, lost in the final round of the qualifying draw to Dusan Lajovic of Serbia in three sets.
He eventually received a second chance, replacing an injured player in the main draw as a lucky loser. Norrie will next face Daniil Medvedev, the 10th seed.
Katie Boulter, meanwhile, lost 6-3, 6-3 against the former French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
