Emma Raducanu returned to winning ways in the first round of the National Bank Open in Canada, within 48 hours of her semi-final defeat almost 500 miles away in the United States.
The 22-year-old suffered a disappointing 6-4, 6-3 loss against Anna Kalinskaya at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington on Saturday and began her campaign in Montreal on Monday. It took Raducanu 97 minutes to overcome Elena-Gabriela Ruse, the world No58 from Romania, 6-2, 6-4 to book a second-round match against Peyton Stearns, the No32 seed.
It is another positive result for Raducanu after she moved up to No33 in the rankings, as she looks to crack a top-32 seeding for the US Open for the first time since 2022. A good run in Montreal, followed by further opportunities at the Cincinnati Open, would stand her in good stead on the hard courts of North America, where she has located her best tennis.
The Briton’s victory followed three straight-sets wins last week on her way to the semi-finals
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Wins over Marta Kostyuk, Naomi Osaka and Maria Sakkari in Washington marked a promising start to the post-Wimbledon phase of Raducanu’s season. Anne Keothavong, the captain of Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team, said her charge was playing the “right kind of tennis”.
The 35C heat of Washington caused Raducanu trouble on Friday as she likened conditions to having one’s head in an oven. She required a medical timeout against Sakkari and then retired during her doubles semi-final with Elena Rybakina.
Given her workload, it will of course be beneficial that Raducanu limits the amount of time she spends on court in matches. All of her victories last week were in straight sets and she again avoided going to a decider against Ruse in friendlier conditions, albeit still hot at 29C. She had Mark Petchey back in her corner after Alexis Canter, her hitting partner, endured a lonely corner vigil in Washington.
Raducanu saved five break points in her opening service game and then proceeded to win five successive games from 2-1 down. There were breaks galore in the second set, with five of ten games going against the server. Seven double faults for Ruse demonstrated her struggles in that area.
Raducanu faced Ruse in Auckland at the start of last year in her first match back after an eight-month absence following double wrist and ankle surgeries. The Briton won a tough battle on that occasion, taking the third set 7-5. Monday’s easier victory was another reminder of how much surer her foundations are in 2025.
Ruse is a friend of Raducanu, with the pair having played an exhibition months after the latter’s US Open win
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Her opponent was a familiar face. Raducanu’s father is Romanian, and she and Ruse struck up a friendship in Cluj-Napoca at the Transylvania Open in 2021, Raducanu’s second tournament after her US Open win. “She is speaking really good Romanian but she’s so shy to do it,” Ruse said at the time. The duo played an exhibition at Royal Albert Hall later in the year, with victory for Raducanu in her first match in Britain as a grand-slam champion.
“I’m so happy to have come through that,” Raducanu said on court in Montreal. “I know Elena, she’s a very good friend of mine and it’s very difficult to play someone you’re close to. I’m really proud of how I put that to one side in the match so [I] backed up a good week last week in DC and performed well today.”
Stearns is another opponent against whom Raducanu has an excellent record, with the Briton having defeated her in Washington and Seoul last year.
At the equivalent ATP event in Toronto Jacob Fearnley lost 6-2, 6-3 against Juan Pablo Ficovich on Sunday, while Cameron Norrie will meet Aleksandar Vukic in the second round.
Katie Boulter lost 6-1, 7-5 against Renata Zarazúa in the first round, meaning she has yet to win since being knocked out of Wimbledon by Solana Sierra.