MELBOURNE: Britain's young sensation Emma Raducanu cleared a hazardous first-round obstacle at the Australian Open, seeing off experienced American Sloane Stephens 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 in an upside down challenge on Tuesday.
Raducanu, who soared to acclaim in September with a fantasy race to the U.S. Open title as a qualifier without dropping a set in what was just her fourth senior competition, hustled through the initial set shortly, releasing just four focuses.
Be that as it may, previous world number three and 2017 U.S. Open top dog Stephens at last tracked down her mood and reach to assume responsibility for the second set from 2-2, rolling out four games as mistakes started sneaking in to seventeenth seed Raducanu's down.
It looked inauspicious by then for the 19-year-old Raducanu whose move toward her Australian Open presentation had scarcely been great, having had COVID-19 and experiencing a weighty loss in her initial match in Sydney.
Yet, she showed the very coolness under tension that cleared her to the title in New York, settling down and tracking down one more stuff to overwhelm the decider with some accuracy standard hitting as the Stephens game disentangled once more.
Stephens stayed away from one more defeat as she held serve at 0-5 yet there was not to be one more bend on a meagerly populated Margaret Court as Raducanu finished off the success on serve in spite of a 6th twofold issue on her first match point.
It was an uplifting start for Raducanu in spite of the second-set wobble and she will be intensely liked to move beyond 99th positioned Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in the second round.
