Towards the end of another fruitful, promising foray on the WTA tour last week, Emma Raducanu found herself staring down what is fast becoming the ultimate challenge in her sport. Across the net in the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open stood Iga Swiatek, the world No 1, on the surface that has most defined her career to date.
For more than two hours, Raducanu went toe-to-toe with the best player of her generation on clay, her level in turn provoking the best out of Swiatek, who played a sublime tie-break to narrowly edge out the first set before closing it out in two. After her great performances in Le Portel, where she led Great Britain to an unlikely upset over France on clay a week earlier, Raducanu left Stuttgart with further suggestions that she may well be finding her feet.
