Emma Raducanu started her 2024 Wimbledon Championships campaign with a straight-set win over Renata Zarazua of Mexico.
Raducanu got a bit of a lucky break in her first match at Wimbledon. While she seemed to be very confident in the past few weeks, the Brit admitted that she felt like an underdog when she found out she would play Ekaterina Alexandrova.
The Russian is a noted grass specialist who is never easy to play, but the Brit got lucky as she didn't ultimately have to play her. Alexandrova was forced to withdraw ahead of their match due to an illness, and lucky loser Renata Zarazua took her place.
The Mexican isn't known as a great grass player, but she's certainly a player who fights for every point, and that's what she did in this match as well. It wasn't an easy match for Raducanu, who has a reputation of steamrolling opponents when she's really feeling good.
She needed a tie-break to win the opening set because Zarazua was playing really solid. The Mexican was the first player to create a break chance, but the home hero ended up breaking first to take a 4-2 lead. She lost it a few games later, so the set ended up in a tie-break, which Raducanu dominated, winning it 7-0.
The Brit's problem early was misfiring quite a bit, which nerves might have caused. It was a Centre Court match at Wimbledon, so there were probably some nerves involved. The second set opened with some inconsistent play again for the 2021 US Open winner, as she had to save early break points.
She handled all of that well, though, and eventually broke Zarazua to take a 4-2 lead. From there it was pretty easy to outplay the Mexican to win the match in two sets. The final score was 7-6(0), 6-3.
Emma Raducanu vs Renata Zarazua Match Stats:
| Emma Raducanu | 7-6(0), 6-3 | Renata Zarazua |
| 1 | Aces | 0 |
| 2 | Double Faults | 2 |
| 70% | First Serve % | 71% |
| 71% (37/52) | Points Won After First Serve % | 59% (26/44) |
| 55% (12/22) | Points Won After Second Serve % | 67% (12/18) |
| 67% (2/3) | Break Point Conversion | 20% (1/5) |
| 16 | Winners | 14 |
| 30 | Unforced Errors | 29 |
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