Teenager Raducanu serves up her own SW19 fairytale
GREAT BRITAIN’S Emma Raducanu continued her Wimbledon fairytale with a sensational win over Marketa Vondrousova to make the third round.
The 18-year-old was only handed a wild card into the main draw at late notice but backed up victory over Vitalia Diatchenko to claim the biggest triumph of her career on Wednesday with a 6-2 6-4 success on Court 12.
A mixture of powerful hitting and incredible composure from Raducanu saw her deservedly shock the world No 42 in one hour and 12 minutes.
Raducanu, who was 338 in the rankings ahead of her main draw debut at the All England Club, has set up a third-round meeting with Sorana Cirstea, who knocked out 12th seed Victoria Azarenka earlier in the day.
Katie Boulter’s exit to Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday meant Raducanu – who is waiting on her A-Level results – was the last British women in the singles draw and despite a fine maiden win at the Championships, expectations were low against a vastly more experienced opponent.
Two long returns in Vondrousova’s opening game were brushed off with a smile and Raducanu soon got on a roll after she got on the board to love.
Vondrousova was struggling to match the intensity of the home favourite and a double fault opened up the chance of an early break, which was taken with a superb cross-court winner from the baseline.
More explosive hitting was forcing the 22-year-old into mistakes and in rapid time Raducanu had gone 5-1 up much and clinched the opener in 29 minutes. Vondrousova showed why she had been ranked as high as 14 two years ago by taking control of the second set. A tie-breaker looked on the cards but Raducanu kept pushing her opponent to the limit with shots to the back of the court.
Vondrousova had little answer and after another unforced error gave the Briton held serve for a place in the third round.
Doncaster’s Tara Moore and Romford’s Eden Silva suffered a straight sets doubles defeat to 11th seeded pair Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva at Wimbledon, losing 6-4 6-3.