Unseeded Emma Raducanu is ready for a really tough opener on the Australian Open after struggling a setback and being compelled to overlook Auckland on account of a again damage.
On Thursday, the draw for this 12 months’s Completely happy Slam was launched and the 2021 US Open champion discovered that she would tackle world No. 27 Ekaterina Alexandrova in spherical one.
For the 22-year-old and the Russian, it is going to be their first assembly.
if Raducanu manages to make it previous Alexandrova and in addition wins her second-round match, she would then doubtless tackle No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek.
As you possibly can see, it’s a fairly robust draw proper from the beginning and the present world No. 60 reaching the second week on the Australian Open can be all however simple.
It was a tough begin to 2025 for Raducanu, however can she make one thing optimistic in Melbourne?
The previous world No. 10 arrived in New Zealand early, solely to tug out of the occasion on the day of her scheduled first-round match due to a again situation.
Whereas she has been practising for days at Melbourne Park, she is missing match health and that’s by no means a superb factor.
Emma Raducanu© X screenshot
”I consistently set objectives and re-evaluate however for subsequent 12 months my outlook and strategy is genuinely identical to exploring how far I can go, how a lot of my potential I can attain,” Raducanu defined in Auckland.
“I don’t think it’s like a one year – ‘yeah, I’ve hit it, you know, I’m going to hit it all this year’. [I’ve] got myself into a place where I can get into tournaments with my ranking and now it’s just about pushing on and seeing how far I can go.”
In every of the previous three years, she picked up second-round losses on the Australian Open.
It stays to be seen if the 22-year-old can no less than go a step additional this 12 months.
