Emma Raducanu shrugged off injury concerns to claim a highly encouraging 6-1 3-6 6-1 win over Caroline Garcia at Indian Wells.
The 19-year-old feared she might have to miss one of the biggest tournaments on the calendar after picking up a leg injury in Mexico just over two weeks ago. But she defied expectations by bouncing back in time to play at the BNP Paribas Open and delivered an impressive performance to sink the former world number four in a decisive final set.
It was a timely win for Raducanu, coming after a difficult start to the year which saw her battle coronavirus as well as blisters that hampered her progress at the Australian Open. Raducanu was in full control as she raced through the first set and looked likely to make short work of her opponent when she broke immediately at the start of the second.
But Garcia battled her way back into the match and there were fears the British number one’s testing start to the new campaign was set to continue. Admirably, Raducanu responded immediately, racing into a 3-0 lead in the deciding set and then pouncing on her opponent’s increasing error count to set up a third-round meeting with Petra Martic.
Andy Murray, meanwhile, showed all his famed fighting qualities as he shrugged off a nightmare first set to beat Taro Daniel and secure a major career milestone at Indian Wells. Murray’s 1-6 6-2 6-4 win in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open, in which he also had to hit back from a break down in the deciding set, lifted him alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in earning 700 tour-level victories.
The match marked Murray’s first appearance since confirming he is to link up with Ivan Lendl for a third time and he joked: “I’m old now so these 11am starts, it takes me a bit of time to get going. But Taro played extremely well. He’s started the year very well.”
Murray wrapped up his historic victory after taking advantage of a third match point to secure a second round meeting with Alexander Bublik.
