Novak Djokovic has moved to ship a message to Emma Raducanu. It will not be typically {that a} present world No 1 reaches out to a participant ranked 300 locations decrease than them however the Serbian proven his class by reaching out to the Brit.

Raducanu beat Romanian star Elena-Gabriela Ruse on her return from a long-term layoff in New Zealand on Tuesday morning. The 21-year-old displayed her new armory of shot choice after lacking nearly all of 2023.

And Djokovic was happy to see the previous US Open winner again on the courtroom. He re-posted a photograph of Raducanu celebrating her victory onto his private Instagram story with the caption "Welcome back."

Raducanu takes on former world No 3 Elina Svitolina within the second spherical on Tuesday morning, not earlier than 5.30am GMT. "I think it's a great opportunity for me to play Elina," Raducanu advised Sky Sports.

"We've never played before, but she's been at the top of the game for so long and I'm really looking forward to it because now that I've got my first match out of the system, I'm not saying the second one will be easy because it's still relative and compared to all the other players I'm very light on matches, I think that I'm just really excited to test myself against one of the best. "And I've nothing to lose, so I'm trying ahead to it."

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Raducanu knows she will have to raise her game when she faces off with the Ukrainian, who is a three-time Grand Slam semifinalist. "I feel the primary one is all the time troublesome," Raducanu added.

"But the adrenaline that you simply get enjoying a match, it could possibly't be replicated doing something in coaching or the rest in life actually. So I'm trying ahead to getting one other dose of it."

After marking her return from injury with a win, Raducanu was full of mixed emotions. She explained: "It's a bizarre one, I did not actually know what I felt throughout or on the finish of the match.

"Usually you have such a clear emotion, whether that's nerves, whether that's happiness - I think I was just a bit like, just struck and just a bit in shock really because eight months is a long time.

"I imply, I've actually been via it, so it is simply nice to be wholesome and to be on the courtroom and competing once more."