Raducanu enters 2023 season with sensational comeback in Auckland

Emma Raducanu started the 2023 season against a player who is ranked just one spot below her, and it was a fight for the second-round spot at the ASB Classic in Auckland, which she won.

The 2021 US Open champion took on one of the biggest talents on the WTA Tour, 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova, in the first round of the WTA 250 tournament in Auckland.

Before starting the season, Raducanu hinted that she changed her mindset going into 2023 and believes that it will also help her to improve in terms of results. In 2022, she couldn't follow up on her sensational Grand Slam win from the previous year.

In the first-round match in Auckland, both players were quite solid on their serve in the first set until the eighth game, when both players started creating a lot of break points.

First, Fruhvirtova had three chances to break her opponent, and then the Brit had four herself. However, none of these were used. When Raducanu served to stay in the set at 4-5, her Czech opponent converted the only set point of the set and her fourth break point to win the first set 6-4.

That was after players returned from a rain delay, which stopped the play in the eighth game of the match. In the second set, Raducanu lost the first eight points and it looked really bad for her.

Yet, then, she managed to break her opponent twice. She built a 4-2 lead, which she never lost, and won the second 6-4 to force a decider.

In the third set, Raducanu could even bagel her opponent and win 6-0, but her run of consecutive games won was stopped at 5-0. However, she certainly won't be upset by that as she won the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 33 minutes.