Emma Raducanu booked her place in the second round of Indian Wells with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over qualifier Rebeka Masarova on Thursday.
Raducanu faces a further tumble down the world rankings without a good run this week. It was in Indian Wells last year that she enjoyed her best run of a turbulent 2023 season to the fourth round.
And she faces a step-up in class on Saturday against the No30 seed Dayana Yastremska.
But the signs looked positive as Raducanu dictated much of the match against Masarova. There were the occasional blips – being broken when 3-0 in the opening set and partial struggles with her serve – but she was still the deserving winner after an hour and 45 minutes on court.
Following her fourth win from eight matches this season, she said: “It was super important for me to get through that. It’s one of the trickiest tournaments conditions wise to play in because it varies so much. I dealt with that really well and overcame a really tough opponent.”
Raducanu had the perfect start with a double break in the opening set and, while she dropped a service game of her own, she held firm despite being 0-40 down when serving for the set at 5-2.
The second set began in much the same fashion but a third break of the Masarova serve in that set were enough to wrap up the victory.
In the men’s draw, Raducanu’s countryman Dan Evans came up just short in a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 defeat to Roman Safiulin.
