Emma Raducanu discovered she has a new nickname at the Australian Open as the British No 1 overcame a slow start to cruise into the second round with a straight-sets win over Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew.
Raducanu only arrived at the Australian Open shortly before the tournament, following an off-season that had been disrupted by injury and a shock defeat at the Hobart International just a few days ago, and the former US Open champion was frustrated to be scheduled late on the opening day of play.
The 23-year-old praised Thailand’s Sawangkaew, the world No 195, as raced into an early lead on her grand slam main draw debut. Sawangkaew had two points to establish a double-break and 4-1 lead in the opening , only for Raducanu to surge back and advance thanks to a 6-4 6-1 victory.
Afterwards, Raducanu gave a shout-out to a local fan in the crowd who had cheered her on by yelling ‘Raddo’ and the British No 1 wrote her new nickname on the court-side camera after the win.
“Apparently, Down Under I’ve got Raddo,” she said. “Never heard that before. Pretty original. Obviously I loved the support. I thought it was great on both sides. To have that on my side, in the big moments, it was a good spur of encouragement. I said he can come to any match. I just need to try to locate him. I hope he comes back.”
Raducanu said she was proud of how she had overturned Sawangkaew’s fast start, in what was just her fourth match of the new season after being several limited during the off-season due a foot injury. With world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka a possible opponent in the third round, Raducanu is having up to speed quickly.
“I came out here having not played any practice points,” said the 28th seed, who will play the Russian-born Anastasia Potapova in the second round. My match with [Maria] Sakkari [at the United Cup] was pretty much the first practice that I played, which is pretty unheard of.
“I think having gone through that and having only had two weeks out here of playing and finding my feet, I’m happy with the level and happy with the speed at how I’ve found my feet on the match court.
“It gives me confidence that if I keep doing the right things, actually I’m able to put chunks of work in, good blocks of practice, I can improve a lot more.”
Raducanu will also have two days off before returning to play Potapova, who has a career-high of 21 in the world, in the second round.
