As Emma Raducanu arrived at the 1573 Arena for her first grand slam match of the new tennis season, she still had questions to answer. Despite making clear progress since rolling her ankle and tearfully retiring from her first tournament of the year in Auckland, it remained to be seen how the injury would hold up under the physical and mental stress of competition.
It fared well enough. After moving timidly in the early exchanges, Raducanu improved throughout her time on court and finished her Australian Open first round match on top of the baseline, completely outmatching Tamara Korpatsch of Germany as she comfortably moved into the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
