Emma Raducanu overcame a lengthy medical time-out during a gutsy three-set first-round victory at the French Open to set up a blockbuster meeting with four-time champion Iga Swiatek.
The 22-year-old was leading China’s Wang Xinyu 6-5 in the first set when she called for the doctor, rubbing ice on her cheeks and around her eyes as she had her blood pressure checked.
There were fears that Raducanu, who has had a series of injury and illness issues throughout her career, would have to retire from the match. But after three minutes of treatment she came back on to the court and confidently served out the set to love.
Wang rallied to take the second set but, in front of a big crowd on a cramped Court Eight, Raducanu hit back to complete a gutsy 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory in two hours and 44 minutes – the joint-longest match of her career on clay.
“I think I’m actually really proud of today’s match, more so than a lot of the matches that I played recently or in general, because I woke up and I felt really sick, to be honest,” Raducanu said.
“I felt bad from the morning. I was just trying and fighting through that. It was really difficult.
“You know, in the first set, I just felt it straight away and it didn’t really go away throughout the whole match.
“To have kind of come through that and overcome how I was feeling, I’m really happy with and I didn’t let it kind of, you know…it would have been easy to kind of let it drag me down.
“I don’t know why I’ve struggled today. The last few days, I’ve just not really been feeling great.
“I guess I’m managing a few things. I’m glad I can have some rest and hopefully rest up before playing Wednesday.”
Decisive break turns game in favour of Brit
Raducanu needed a lengthy medical time-out as she came through a marathon match against Wang on a packed Court 8
Prior to the match, Raducanu had admitted the back problem she suffered in Strasbourg last week was was still not 100 per cent right.
The 2021 US champion has had to overcome a phobia of needles to undergo acupuncture in a bid to ease the issue.
Raducanu’s movement did not appear to be hindered by the problem, but her energy levels did seem low.
At the start of the second set, the British No 2 flagged again allowing Wang, who is ranked two places beneath her at 43 in the world, to move 5-1 ahead.
Raducanu dug deep to claw both breaks back, but 23-year-old Wang – a former doubles champion at Roland-Garros – brought up set points on her opponent’s serve and took the second to level the match.
Raducanu disappeared off court briefly at the changeover and upon her return promptly grabbed a decisive break.
She squandered two match points on her own serve but a Wang double-fault in the next game sealed a gruelling win.
Swiatek showdown next…
Ahead of her showdown with Swiatek, who is on a 22-match winning streak at the French Open, Raducanu added: “I feel like Iga’s always played really well when we have played.
“I’m looking forward to kind of going out and playing her again. I think in the last month, I have made good strides with my game and my mentality, as well, big time.
“I think this time, yeah, it’s great. I get another crack at the best in the world and I’m looking forward to playing on a big court probably as well.”
World No 5 Swiatek, who routed Raducanu 6-0 6-1 in just an hour and 10 minutes at the Australian Open, had earlier stretched her winning run at the French Open by beating Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 6-3 6-3.
Fearnley floors Wawrinka on French Open debut
British No 2 Jacob Fearnley enjoyed a dream French Open debut with a straight-sets win over former champion Stan Wawrinka.
Fearnley, who was just three years old when Wawrinka made his first appearance at Roland Garros in 2005, won 7-6 (8) 6-3 6-2 in a little over two hours.
Wawrinka’s title came 10 years ago and now, aged 40, he is by no means the force he once was but this was still a major feather in Edinburgh-born Fearnley’s cap.
Boulter breaks duck as Burrage bows out
Britain’s top WTA player, Katie Boulter, made unnecessarily hard work of beating French wildcard Carole Monnet to break her Roland Garros duck.
Boulter led a player ranked 193 places below her 5-3 in the first set, but allowed Monnet to take it to a tie-break which the home hope won.
However, Boulter regrouped in the next set and eventually ran out a comfortable 6-7 (4) 6-1 6-1 winner.
British No 7 Jodie Burrage came up short against former world No 7 Danielle Collins.
Burrage, making her Roland Garros debut after missing out last year through injury, was narrowly beaten 7-6 (1) 6-4 in the first round.
Burrage, 25, fought back from 5-3 down to serve for the first set, only for 31-year-old American Collins to force a tie-break which she then won comfortably.
Collins, who beat Iga Swiatek in Rome last week, went through the gears at the start of the second but Burrage still showed plenty of fight, retrieving one of two breaks to trail 5-4.
But Collins held serve to get over the line and inflict the first casualty on the British contingent this year.
World No 68 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro stunned American ninth seed Emma Navarro 6-0 6-1 in 57 minutes to advance to the second-round.
The Spaniard was on the verge of a double bagel but failed to serve out for a 6-0 6-0 win, hitting two double faults.
Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina overcame a second-set slip to defeat Argentine qualifier Julia Riera 6-1 4-6 6-4. The Kazakh 12th seed will next face American Iva Jovic.
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