sloane stephens has dished emma raducanu lined up to compete in the australian open for the first time as a professional, reminders of her inexperience were ever present.
Three sets of wild extremes : 6-0 to Raducanu to start, all done in 16 minutes; then 6-2 to Stephens, the longest and closest set despite the scoreline; finally 6-1 to Raducanu to win the day.
Certainly, Raducanu was unrecognisable from last week, and her inauspicious first round exit at Sydney.
Raducanu started ferociously, a fabulous forehand down the line, but few professionals greet the first point of the match with a scream that would better suit the last.
First 3 set game in a Grand Slam – And a win!
i definitely wanted to put my game on the court.
'After that, though, Sloane's defensive skills were pretty inspiring, it was where I want my game to be.
Emma Raducanu shone at a major again as she marked her Australian Open debut with victory
This year is all about learning for me ... having to fight her in a decider feels like accumulating in a bank. '
she's carrying the whole country, so that's different to my game entirely.
She won the US Open in 2017 from a ranking of 83, at the time the lowest-ranked champion in the history of the tournament and the fifth-lowest in Grand Slam history.
If you think about the way she won it, that's pretty backwards compared to mine, and that makes it so hard to manage.
The US Open winner came up with the right formula once more to claim a 6-0 2-6 6-1 victory
Because she is so young it's definitely a long road, so there's going to be a lot of ups and downs and I think she just has a lot to learn.
Having claimed the winning point, Raducanu dropped her racket, put both hands to her face, overwhelmed, as if she'd just won another title.
despite being a grand slam champion, the encounter with sloane stephens marked her first match against a grand slam champion.
In the end she was forced to play three sets for only the third time in her career at the top level.
Sloane Stephens fought back in the second set having been blown away early on in Melbourne
So I was really enjoying it and I think the crowd that stayed pretty late, we were having a good time.
As she smothered Stephens with her return of serve, taking the ball early and refusing to relinquish the baseline, Stephens was barely present and she initially offered little resistance.
"I was talking to someone in the locker room and I'm like : 'We ’ ll be here when she comes down, ’ but not Emma, but just in general.
Raducanu took a nice step forward.
Sloane Stephens served a brutal reality check to Emma Raducanu (Image: GETTY)
"It's way past my bedtime right now," she said.
“ That it ’ s something I ’ m also learning about, myself and what works for me, dealing with those late finishes and the night matches and maybe not being able to get to sleep as early because of the adrenaline you ’ re running on. ”
Never did I think when I came here to New York that I would walk away with the title.
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