.png)
3 hours ago
1
Emma Raducanu continued her impressive clay-court form as she swept aside the sixth seed, Daria Kasatkina, in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.
The British No 2, who won three games on the surface for the first time in her career last week as she reached the last 16 of the Italian Open, beat the world No 17 by a comprehensive 6-1, 6-3 scoreline.
It was another notable scalp for Raducanu, playing her final warm-up tournament before the French Open, which begins on Sunday. She had lost to Kasatkina, who recently changed her allegiance to Australia, in each of their three previous meetings.
Raducanu made a searing start by breaking her opponent in the opening game of the match. Despite being broken straight back, the 22-year-old proceeded to reel off the next five games to take the first set 6-1.
The second set started in the same vein for Raducanu, who held serve and then broke to lead 2-0 and take her run of games to seven. Kasatkina quickly broke back, but five more breaks of serve in a row saw the Briton presented. with a chance to serve for the match at 5-3.
Raducanu found it anything but straightforward so close to the winning line, spurning her first two match points due to a crisp Kasatkina return, and then a netted backhand slice. Kasatkina once again stepped up to save a third match point before Raducanu finally managed to get over the line at the fourth time of trying.
“To bring that level here, I’m really proud,” said Raducanu in her on-court interview after the match. “I think as I spend more time on clay I’m starting to get to like it a little bit more, and I’m kind of building my relationship with the surface.”
Having taken a late wild card for the tournament, Raducanu will next face American Danielle Collins, who beat compatriot Sofia Kenin in three sets.
Harriet Dart was knocked out in the first round of French Open qualifying after being beaten 6-1, 6-2 by Anastasiia Sobolieva. The Ukrainian broke Dart’s serve twice in the opening set as she wrapped it up in 28 minutes.
The British No 5 was broken twice more at the start of the second set before responding with a break of her own, but Sobolieva – who is ranked 230th in the world – continued to impress and closed out a comfortable victory.
At the ATP Geneva Open in Switzerland, Jacob Fearnley eased past Serbian wildcard Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-1 in the opening round to set up a meeting with the fifth seed, Australia’s Alexei Popyrin.
A close first set saw four successive breaks of serve in the opening games, but both players managed to hold before Lajovic had his serve broken in the ninth game and Fearnley then held to snatch victory. The British No 2 then broke serve at 1-1 in the third set and reeled out four straight games to advance.
The British No 3, Cameron Norrie, also began with a victory in Geneva, seeing off Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker 7-6 (2), 6-3.
