Sports Mole previews Saturday’s Cincinnati Open second-round match between Olga Danilovic and Emma Raducanu, including predictions and form.
On a mission to avenge her fallen doubles partner, British number one Emma Raducanu begins her quest for Cincinnati Open glory on Saturday, facing Olga Danilovic in her second-round battle.
The 2021 US Open winner earned a bye into the second stage of the WTA 1000 event courtesy of her 30th seeding, while Danilovic took down Katie Boulter in round one and now aspires to secure a second British beating in the space of two days.
Match preview
An unfamiliar sight since the first few months after her Grand Slam success, Raducanu is back among the seeds for a prestigious tennis event, albeit thanks to a few high-profile withdrawals.
Had Qinwen Zheng, Mirra Andreeva and Paula Badosa not pulled out of the Masters competition, Raducanu would have been forced into a first-round scrap, but the current world number 39 benefitted from her rivals’ injury problems to skip the opening stage.
After giving a good account of herself in a battling Wimbledon defeat to world number one Aryna Sabalenka, Raducanu’s hard-court swing began in exceptional fashion with not one, but two semi-final appearances at the Washington Open, progressing to the final four in both singles and doubles.
The 22-year-old did not advance by chance either – three esteemed names in Naomi Osaka, Marta Kostyuk and Maria Sakkari fell to her superiority in the singles tournament – but her run in Montreal earlier this month was slightly more modest.
Identical victories over Elena-Gabriela Ruse and Peyton Stearns (6-2 6-4) preceded a chastening defeat at the hands of Wimbledon runner-up Amanda Anisimova, who dropped just three games en route to eliminating the British number one.
However, Raducanu now has more than one incentive to take down Danilovic in their first-ever WTA Tour head-to-head, as the Serbian 24-year-old was responsible for Boulter’s premature exit from Cincinnati on Thursday.
Danilovic brutally bagelled the former British number one in the first set before showcasing a different side of her game in the second, fighting back from a break down twice to seal a terrific 6-0 7-5 first-round triumph.
At 4-5 down in the second with Boulter serving to level the match, Danilovic saved two set points before gaining critical momentum with a hard-fought break back, which preceded a winning game to love on the Briton’s serve.
Thanks to Boulter’s wastefulness and diligent defensive work – perhaps taking after her partner, Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak – Danilovic saved six of the eight break points she faced in the first round, on what was her Cincinnati Open debut no less.
The 24-year-old leftie would achieve a best-ever Masters singles result with one more victory – she has never reached the third round of a WTA 1000 event before – and a glamour tie with Sabalenka or 2023 Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova will await Saturday’s worthy winner.
Tournament so farOlga Danilovic
First round: vs. Katie Boulter 6-0 7-5
We say: Raducanu to win in three sets
Danilovic allowing Raducanu to attack her second serves would be a fatal error, but the Serbian landed just 58% of her first serves against Boulter – a statistic that does not exactly bode well.
As the British number one has already bested some notable names in the early days of the hard-court swing, we have faith in Raducanu to prevail in a closely-contested battle and potentially set up a mouthwatering Sabalenka rematch.
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