Stephens congratulates Raducanu over her win in the Australian Open
Xtra Time Web Desk: Emma Raducanu of Britain fought courageously and won the first round hurdle at the Australian Open seeing off experienced American Sloane Stephens 6-0 2-6 6-1 in a topsy-turvy contest on Tuesday.
Raducanu was in the qualifiers round in the US Open title without dropping a set in what was only her fourth senior tournament, raced through the opening set in 17 minutes, leaking only four points in September.
Former US Champion Stephens found her gameplay and started to lead from the score of 2-2, reeling off four games as errors began creeping in to 17th seed Raducanu's game.
It threatened the 19-year-old Raducanu whose build-up to her Australian Open debut had hardly been ideal, having had COVID-19 and suffering a heavy defeat in her opening match in Sydney.
But she showed the same patience under pressure that swept her to the title in New York, settling down and finding another gear to dominate the decider with some precision baseline hitting as the Stephens game unravelled again.
Stephens avoided another rout as she held serve at 0-5 but there was not to be another twist on a sparsely-populated Margaret Court as Raducanu closed out the win on serve despite a sixth double-fault on her first match point.
