Raducanu survives Stearns test in Korea Open first round

Emma Raducanu needed two tiebreakers to move into the second round of the Korea Open. She won against American Peyton Stearns 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) at the Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul on Tuesday.

Raducanu and Stearns opened with an intense fight as the first set witnessed eight service breaks followed by a tiebreaker, where the American saved a set point before the world No 70 converted one.

The second set panned out differently as the two players remained on serve until Raducanu converted a break point in the eighth game. Stearns hit back immediately to break the Brit in the following game.

They then exchanged one break each to force another tiebreaker, where world No 48 Stearns managed to save a match point but her opponent crossed the line as the match extended beyond two hours, 40 minutes.

Raducanu, ranked No 70, will play Chinese Yue Yuan, the No 8 seed, next. Yuan defeated Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in her opener.

Raducanu hasn’t played against Yuan on tour yet.

Seoul WTA 500, other first-round results (Olympic Park Tennis Center, hard, USD 922.573, most recent results first):

• Ajla Tomljanovic vs. Su Jeong Jang
• Viktoriya Tomova beat Tatjana Maria: 6-2, 1-6, 6-0
• Hailey Baptiste beat Sloane Stephens: 7-6 (4), 6-2
• Amanda Anisimova beat Yulia Putintseva (6): 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Polina Kudermetova (LL) beat Priscilla Hon (Q): 7-5, 6-4
• Marta Kostyuk (5) beat Arantxa Rus: 6-3, 6-1
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (7) beat Varvara Lepchenko (Q): 7-5, 3-6, 6-0
• Carol Zhao (Q) beat Dayeon Back (WC): 6-4, 6-1
• Heather Watson (Q) beat Jia-Jing Lu (Q): 6-4, 6-4
• Veronika Kudermetova beat Shuai Zhang: 6-4, 6-3
• Yue Yuan beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Q): 4-6, 6-2, 6-2

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