Emma Raducanu continued her hard-court hot streak with a dominant win over Olga Danilovic in Cincinnati. With new coach Francis Roig watching on from the stands of the newly-built Champions Court, the Brit was firmly in charge both on and against serve as she strolled into the last 32 of the WTA 1000 event.
Raducanu only needed an hour and 20 minutes to come through 6-3 6-2 against the world No.43 and set up a possible third-round clash with Aryna Sabalenka. Danilovic looked as though she could cause Raducanu trouble when she sent fellow Briton Katie Boulter crashing out of the tournament and bageled her in the first set on Thursday.
But, in the end, the 22-year-old made it look easy. She converted five of her eight break points and won an impressive 73 per cent of the points behind her second serve - an even more efficient hit rate than behind her first.
This was Raducanu's first competitive meeting with Danilovic and the conditions didn't make it easy for either player as they slugged it out in 32-degree heat. Roig, who spent nearly two decades coaching Rafael Nadal, is no stranger to a sunny day and he was able to enjoy his player's performance less than a week after their partnership was announced.
Raducanu has been in great form this summer, making it to the third round at Wimbledon, the semi-finals of the Citi Open and the third round of the Canadian Open before rocking up in Ohio.
She showed more of the same great tennis against Danilovic, and sent a warning to the Serb by breaking in the very first game of the match. As it turned out, that merely set the tone for a topsy-turvy first five games in which there were four breaks and only one hold of serve.
A pattern finally emerged until, after Raducanu held to go 4-3 up, she then found a crucial break to give herself breathing space and raced through the last game of the set as a furious Danilovic had to gather herself off-court.
Danilovic was raging with herself again early in the second set as Raducanu pushed to break early on. They ended up trading holds until 2-2 but Raducanu then took full control of the match and won every game from then on, including an excellent match-clincher in which all four of the points won by the Brit were eye-catching winners.
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