Emma Raducanu got her 2023 season off to a winning start with a three-set victory over Linda Fruhvirtova at the ASB Classic in Auckland on Tuesday.
With just one place separating them in the world rankings, it promised to be a close contest and the 17-year-old Czech, ranked a place lower than her opponent at 79 in the current standings, got the early break to take the first set.
Raducanu, playing in her first match since teaming up with new coach Sebastian Sachs, again found herself on the back foot in the second set at 2-0 down but fought back to force a decider.
She got the crucial early break on Fruhvirtova’s opening service game in that final set before a downpour forced both players off.
But that early break appeared to extinguish the fight from Raducanu’s teen opponent as the 20-year-old Briton wrapped up a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory four hours after the pair had first taken to the court.
Following the win, Raducanu said: “What a battle. It was a different dynamic for me as I’m normally the younger one. She’s going to up there for sure and already is.”
Raducanu had not played a competitive tournament since the beginning of October when a wrist injury flared up again and forced a premature end to her season.
She had finished the season coach less but has since partnered with Sachs, who guided Belinda Bencic to the Olympic gold medal in the summer of 2021.
