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Emma Raducanu battled to victory over American Peyton Stearns in the opening round of the Korea Open.
A topsy-turvy contest featuring 12 breaks of serve eventually went the way of the former US Open champion after two hours and 43 minutes as she wrapped up a 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) win in Seoul.
It was Raducanu’s first victory since she beat the same player in Washington at the end of July, with the 21-year-old’s only tournament in August coming at the US Open, where she lost to Sofia Kenin in the opening round.
Raducanu was emotional after that defeat and admitted she had made a mistake with her scheduling and wanted to play more matches.
She has committed to a relatively full schedule for the end of the season, and made a positive start here, albeit with several hiccups along the way.
Raducanu led 4-1 in the opening set and was 40-0 up on serve but lost four games in a row then missed two set points trying to serve it out at 6-5 before eventually taking it on a tie-break.
The second set went with serve until Raducanu broke to lead 5-3 but again she was shaky on her own delivery and Stearns, ranked 22 places higher at 48 in the world, reeled off three games in a row only to also drop serve at the crucial moment.
That sent the set to another tie-break, and this time Raducanu finally managed to make it across the line to set up a clash with Chinese eighth seed Yuan Yue.
Speaking on court, she said: “I’m proud to have made it through to the next round. It was tough. It was very humid, the ball was bouncing around a lot.
“It was a tough match to get through. I haven’t played many matches in the last few months and Peyton, she’s a really good player and on really good form. I’m really pleased.”
