Emma Raducanu continued her tremendous performances on clay by eating Angelique Kerber for her third consecutive win on the surface.
While the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart is Raducanu's first WTA clay event, it was not the first clay match she played this year. That came during the week when she played for Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers, where the Brit produced some amazing tennis to down both Caroline Garcia and Diane Parry.
Her performances were vital for her country to clinch a spot at the Finals, and it was good practice for the Brit on clay. Both matches were three-set matches, so she spent a lot of time on the court, and it paid off.
She looked very comfortable in this match and navigated a rather tricky opponent in Kerber. The German hasn't been the same since she came back from pregnancy, as she's yet to really produce at a high level.
Even so, she'll always be tough, especially on home soil, where she had the crowd pulling for her. The first set was really unproblematic for Raducanu, who outpaced the home player by a lot.
She didn't play a perfect set because Kerber had chances, but she didn't really convert most of them, while Raducanu was rather clinical. The Brit was very aggressive on the German's second serve, winning a lot of points that way.
The end result was a 6-2 scoreline, which was both impressive and surprising. The second set would open with an early break as well, though this time around, Kerber broke back immediately.
Raducanu would then break once more as Kerber continued to struggle on her serve. The massive pressure on her second serve caused more than a few double faults as she finished with eight in the match.
Thanks to that, Raducanu sailed the ship home for a 6-2, 6-1 win to reach the second round of the tournament.
0 Comments