Bidding to reach the third round of the Australian Open for the very first time, Emma Raducanu clashes racquets with China's Yafan Wang in Thursday's second-round battle on Show Court 2.
The Briton cruised past the USA's Shelby Rogers in her Melbourne opener, while Wang produced a mesmerising comeback to defeat Romanian 23rd seed Sorana Cirstea in three sets.
Match preview
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Two injury-bedevilled foes locked horns in their Australian Open first-round encounter on Tuesday, where former US Open winner Raducanu took to a Grand Slam court for the first time in 12 months, while Rogers played her first match since last year's Wimbledon after a troublesome abdominal concern.
The WTA rankings may display Raducanu 135 places below Rogers in 296th spot, but the Briton was a class above her more experienced opponent both physically and technically, taking just 76 minutes to power to a 6-3 6-2 victory for her first major victory since the 2023 Australian Open.
Rogers's performance was far from disastrous, but Raducanu's exceptional speed and court coverage often proved too hot for the American to handle as the 21-year-old allayed any lingering fears over her fitness, while demonstrating exceptional ball-striking to boot.
Raducanu won 91% of points behind her first serve and committed fewer than half of Rogers's unforced errors - 16 to 34 - to reach round two at the Australian Open for the third year running, but she is yet to make it past this stage in the opening Grand Slam of the calendar year.
In fact, not since her magical run to 2021 US Open glory has Raducanu reached the third round of any major tournament, but having also defeated Rogers en route to that infamous Grand Slam triumph, the 21-year-old's more superstitious fans may be daring to dream once more.
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Both Raducanu and Wang have all the motivation they require to put the other to the sword on Thursday, as the former is on a collision course with Katie Boulter in the third round, but Wang could also set up a showdown with compatriot Qinwen Zheng should the Chinese number one overcome the British number one.
Some may still be in disbelief to see Wang's name in the second round at all, as the world number 94 lost each of the first nine games in her opening battle with Cirstea, only to produce an astonishing turnaround to triumph 0-6 7-5 6-2 in a one-hour and 57-minute spectacular.
An appalling opening set saw Wang win a mere three points on serve as Cirstea inflicted a bagel on her, and the die was seemingly cast when the Chinese ceded an early break in the second set, but she refused to wave the white flag and capitalised on a shocking capitulation from her seeded foe.
The beating of Cirstea marked a maiden top-30 victory of the year for Wang, who could not return a blistering forehand on her first match point against Cirstea, but the Romanian proceeded to send a cross-court forehand an inch wide to ensure that Wang would at least match her best-ever Grand Slam performance.
Indeed, the 29-year-old has failed to reach the third round of a major tournament in any of her previous 13 appearances, and she has only made it as far as round two once before at the Australian Open, although there was no shame in bowing out to Ashleigh Barty in that 2019 affair.
Tournament so far
Emma Raducanu:
First round: vs. Shelby Rogers 6-3 6-2
Yafan Wang:
First round: vs. Sorana Cirstea 0-6 7-5 6-2
Head To Head
Thursday's second-round contest will see Raducanu and Wang do battle at the highest level for the very first time, although the latter's experience heavily outweighs her 21-year-old rival; she has 326 WTA Tour singles wins under her belt compared to 99 for Raducanu.
However, both Raducanu and Wang share two top-level titles between them, as the latter's first and only WTA Tour triumph to date came at the 2019 Abierto Mexicano, where she once again came from a set down to sink Sofia Kenin in the championship match.
Raducanu and Wang are both right-handed players who enjoy adopting an aggressive approach, but the former boasts a minor physical edge, standing at one inch taller than her Chinese counterpart.
We say: Raducanu to win in three sets
Wang has made a habit of coming from behind to prevail when the writing is seemingly on the wall, but the 29-year-old - who is yet to banish her Grand Slam second-round curse - should not get away with a similarly slow start as she did against Cirstea.
The world number 94 remains a force to be reckoned with at the net, but with Raducanu in tip-top physical condition and also mixing up her heavy groundstrokes with well-executed drop shots, we back the Brit to clinch her 100th singles win and continue her Melbourne journey.
Ben Knapton
