Emma Raducanu inspired by England to ‘win ugly’ on Wimbledon return | Wimbledon 2024

Few tennis players understand the importance of seizing opportunities like Emma Raducanu. Her transcendent triumph at the 2021 US Open was, after all, an exercise in spectacularly overcoming the situation, with various factors working in her favor. Her life has never been the same since.

With the last-minute withdrawal of her scheduled first-round opponent, No. 22 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, the first day of her third Wimbledon could well be another. Raducanu arrived on Centre Court as the overwhelming favourite in her first match, rather than the underdog, and although she struggled to cope with the weight that those expectations entail, the 21-year-old held on to reach the second round with a tough 7-6 (0), 6-3 win over lucky loser Renata Zarazúa.

In Friday’s draw, Raducanu had been set to face Alexandrova, a top-30 player who loves grass. But on Monday morning, the Russian withdrew due to illness. She was replaced by Zarazúa, a resourceful but underpowered 26-year-old Mexican who lost a tight three-set match in the final round of qualifying.

Even though Raducanu was clearly a better tennis player than her new opponent, changing opponents on such short notice poses significant challenges. “It’s really difficult,” Raducanu said. “I think with the time frame, it was really just a few hours. When you prepare from the draw to play against one person, you have a completely different style of play, you’ve worked on specific things. But I think it’s all about competing.”

Sloane Stephens, who faced a similar challenge after an even later retirement to Victoria Azarenka, expressed the same sentiment in a different way after her win over Elsa Jacquemot. “Changing opponents an hour before the match is not in the right frame of mind,” she said. “I don’t recommend it. Zero out of 10.”

At just 1.60m, Zarazúa has had to find different ways to win tennis matches against countless taller and stronger opponents she encounters. From the very beginning of the match, she showed how difficult she can be to play against, drawing Raducanu into prolonged rallies with her disciplined movement and shooting while mixing up the pace and trajectory of her shots.

While she was set to face a powerful flat-ball hitter, Raducanu suddenly found herself tasked with dictating the vast majority of rallies and trying to keep them short. Raducanu prefers to redirect the pace rather than consistently generate her own, and she struggled in the early rallies. She simply couldn’t get through Zarazúa, whose slices and consistent drop shots drew Raducanu to the frontcourt and other awkward positions around the court.

Although Raducanu broke serve first to take a 4-2 lead, she couldn’t shake the tension for much of the first set. She struggled to assert herself with her return of serve, usually one of her best weapons, and put so little pressure on Zarazúa’s shaky serve. But Raducanu held her ground until the tiebreak, serving well when she needed to and, with the set on the line, she was at her most animated and energetic as she forced herself to the baseline and dominated to take the set.

After winning the first set, Raducanu gradually opened up her shoulders, eventually putting pressure on the Mexican’s serve as she took the only break of the second set at 4-2 with some powerful returns before holding firm in her service games until the end.

“In a way, it’s a little bit related to my performance,” Raducanu said. “I don’t think it was perfect tennis. It wasn’t clean, beautiful, or striking the ball. It was just about managing the opponent, the fight and the circumstances.”

Raducanu compared her gutsy win to England’s victory over Slovakia at Euro 2024 the day before. “I was nervous, I think everyone could see that in my tennis, but at the end of the day you have to do whatever it takes to get over the line. Honestly, watching the football last night, it was an ugly win – everything counts.”

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“Last night I had a feeling they were going to turn it around again. The people I was watching with, I was like, I don’t know. It was the 93rd minute. I had a feeling. Then Jude (Bellingham) scored that crazy goal.

“Today I used that as motivation. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t have to be perfect. As long as you can get through the early rounds, you give yourself another chance to play better. For the circumstances to align, as long as you’re still in the tournament, you keep giving yourself that chance.”

A year after missing Wimbledon and eight months after undergoing operations on her wrists and ankles, Raducanu returned to the All England Club with an encouraging victory. By keeping her cool, she also took the 22nd seed in the draw and will next face Elise Mertens, who reached the second round earlier with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Nao Hibino.

“As I said in the first press conference, I would be over the moon if I won my first round here,” Raducanu said. “And I really am. I just feel the joy of being there, the joy of being part of the buzz. I’m really enjoying it.”

“I think every game I win should be celebrated. I think for me, because I know how hard games are to win. I think after I get a few wins, I really cherish every single one of them because I know how hard it is to be on the other side of the fence.”