Emma Raducanu is through to the third round of the Australian Open for the first time after battling through injury to beat her friend Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-5.
The 22-year-old required treatment on what looked like a lower back issue – it has been troubling her since a spasm before Christmas – but she toughed out the win and will face the mighty Iga Swiatek on Saturday.
If Raducanu is carrying even a suspicion of injury into that match she will surely not last much longer in Melbourne but what matters for now is that she showed a tenacity we have rarely seen before in winning despite physical discomfort.
‘This is a slam that I love playing at so to make it past the second round means a lot to me,’ said Raducanu.
‘It’s incredibly difficult whenever you play a friend, it adds another dimension to the match and not necessarily a pleasant one. I think I did a good job. I knew I had to not go away in the second set.
‘It was tricky today, it was a little bit windy, there was sun on one side. Both in patches had some moments with our serve. The way I managed to regroup at the end of the first, I was pretty proud of that.’
Raducanu’s back spasmed in pre-season when she bent to lace her shoes and that knocked her out of two weeks’ training and the Auckland Open.
Even here in Melbourne she was struggling to serve at full tilt in practice and in her first round victory against Ekaterina Alexandrova she hit 15 double faults.
So there was clearly still some residual discomfort but she plotted her way superbly through the first set, although it was noticeable that she was speaking more to fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura than coach Nick Cavaday.
In the first game of the second set she hit three double faults and the wincing became a little more pronounced.
At 3-0 down the physio arrived and worked both hips, apparently to try to loosen the lower back.
Raducanu does not exactly have the greatest track record of battling through injury so the odds seemed heavily stacked in Anisimova’s favour.
But tennis is a curious sport and it can be the case that an injury to an opponent can wrangle a player’s mind. This was a stark example as Anisimova lost her head completely for three games.
The temptation when playing an injured opponent is to stay steady and make them run but that is not Anisimova’s game, and in departing from her aggressive style she lost all rhythm. In one service game she hit two doubles and a measly 111kph second serve.
Raducanu got it back to 3-3 and led 30-0 on her own serve but Anisimova reeled off four points. The physio returned in the next changeover.
Raducanu broke straight back though and served at 4-4 in what felt like a massive game. At 30-30 Anisimova had her on the run in the forehand corner; Raducanu flung out an arm and clawed back a raking low ball. She roared and fist pumped, the first display of positive emotion since the medical timeout.
It felt like such a significant shot, not only in the context of the match but in terms of the ‘end-of-range’ physical work she has been doing with Nakamura to strengthen Raducanu in just such a situation as that.
She won the next point too and raised a defiant fist to the sky.
There was another superb end-of-range slice backhand from Raducanu as Anisimova served successfully to stay in the set.
Raducanu was hustling and fighting, scraping and scrapping balls back into play. Anisimova is as good a ball striker as there is in world tennis but when she is required to improvise around the forecourt she struggles, so Raducanu’s low defensive shots troubled her.
Once again Anisimova served to stay in the match but this time Raducanu earned a match point. She played a lovely skimming slice and Anisimova predictably chopped it wide.
Raducanu put her hands to her head in disbelief and there was a warm embrace between the two friends at the net.
Raducanu may have clung on to reach her first-ever third round of the Grand Slam but now a tougher challenge lies in wait – one she will relish.
‘It’ll be a good match for me,’ she said of her third-round clash against World No. 2 Swiatek. ‘Any match I can play against these top opponents… I’m loving it. It’s an opportunity to test my game and see where I’m at.
‘We played twice before on clay. Let’s see on hard court. She’s achieved so much already. Going into it, I have nothing to lose. I’m just gonna swing. I’m gonna give it my best. I can’t wait to play in front of you guys.’
