Emma Raducanu bought off to a profitable begin in Abu Dhabi as she ousted Marie Bouzkova to advance to the second spherical. The 21-year-old had a shaky begin earlier than storming via to defeat the world No. 36 6-4 6-1. She will now face second seed Ons Jabeur in a mouthwatering showdown.

Raducanu stepped onto the court docket after 9pm native time after what had been a marathon opening day in Abu Dhabi, with the primary three matches all going past two hours. Playing in simply the third event of her comeback, the Brit got here up towards world No. 36 Bouzkova for the primary time.

It was a nervy begin for each ladies with six breaks of serve within the first seven video games. It took 40 minutes for Raducanu to carry serve for the primary time as she levelled at 4-4. With Bouzkova struggling to win factors on her serve, the British No. 8 pounced to interrupt once more and received her fourth recreation in a row to shut out a rollercoaster first set 6-4.

Bouzkova saved a break level to finish Raducanu’s run of video games, getting on the board to start out the second set. But the previous US Open champion continued to place stress on her opponent and was rewarded with one other break to take a 2-1 lead.

Raducanu continued to enhance because the second set went on, exhibiting indicators of the shape that helped her win a Grand Slam title as a qualifier. She barely put a foot unsuitable, breaking Bouzkova two extra instances to safe the victory in simply an hour and 22 minutes.

It was an announcement efficiency for the world No. 296, who fired down 23 winners to 16 unforced errors, making simply three errors within the second set. After the match, Raducanu mentioned: “I warmed up so many times today but I was here since 2 so it was a pretty long wait, especially for you guys for waiting for us to play. So thank you for toughing it out and it was great to see you.”

Addressing her gradual begin, the Brit added: “I think in the beginning I was just adjusting to the speed of the court. I hadn’t played on this court this year yet. I was kind of just adjusting, it was pretty quick and also more still than it had been for the week because it’s been very windy so it’s a different tempo.

“But Marie is a really tough opponent. I knew that going in, I was going to have to play so many balls and I think in the beginning I was missing a few of the finishing shots but I cleaned that up so I’m very happy about that and very happy to be back in Abu Dhabi.”

Raducanu will now have a troublesome check as she faces world No. 6 Jabeur within the second spherical. The Tunisian is an awesome crowd favorite when she performs the Middle East. While they've by no means confronted off on the tour, they contested an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi on the finish of 2022.

It was Jabeur who got here via in a decisive match tiebreak, profitable 5-7 6-3 [10-8]. The second seed is trying to bounce again after struggling a disappointing second-round defeat on the Australian Open. Raducanu, in the meantime, shall be hoping to maintain her comeback going with an announcement victory after going 2-2 in her first two tournaments.