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Emma Raducanu said she was "really happy" with her Australian Open start. Raducanu, who suffered an ankle injury 10 days earlier in Auckland, saw off Tamara Korpatsch 6-3 6-2 to progress into the Australian Open second round.
"I'm obviously really happy to be through to the second round. It was always going to be difficult, coming in with so little prep and being out there. Everything I've done has been quite controlled the last week. So to test it out in a real match and with the unpredictability and stuff, I was just getting used to it in the beginning.
But it felt good," Raducanu said, per Sky Sports. In her next match, Raducanu plays seventh-seeded Cori Gauff, the 18-year-old American who has "obviously done a lot of great things." "I'm really looking forward to this match.
I'm very up for it. Coco has obviously done a lot of great things and she's playing well. I think we're both good, young players, we're both coming through, part of the next generation of tennis, really. It's going to be a great match," Raducanu said of playing Gauff.
How Raducanu defeated Korpatsch
Through the first three games of the match, three breaks were seen as Raducanu had a 2-1 lead. After saving a break point in the fifth game, Korpatsch broke back Raducanu in the sixth game to tie the first set to three games apiece.
However, blowing two early breaks didn't impact Raducanu, who earned back-to-back breaks in the seventh and ninth games to seal the first set. Raducanu continued her run at the start of the second set, claiming an early break for a 3-0 lead.
Raducanu missed out on a chance to go up by a double break in the fifth game but she also saved two break points in the sixth game to open a 4-2 lead. In the eighth game - when Korpatsch was serving to stay in the match - Raducanu earned her second break of the set to complete a two-set win. Next up for Raducanu is her first meeting against Gauff.