Emma Raducanu puts injury concerns aside with victory over Tamara Korpatsch
Raducanu had her left ankle taped up but grew in confidence through the match and eased to a 6-3, 6-2 win
Even when playing with the handicap of a wonky ankle, Emma Raducanu was still far too strong for German clay-court specialist Tamara Korpatsch. After a 6-3, 6-2 victory that occupied 85 minutes, Raducanu should head into her second-round meeting with Coco Gauff feeling upbeat about herself.
No one was expecting too much from Raducanu here after the sprain she picked up in Auckland the week before last. Her ankle took a while to warm up. When she was forced back on her backhand side, in particular, she struggled to push off that left foot. Even on neutral balls, her lack of recent hitting practice betrayed itself in a hefty tally of 34 unforced errors.
But there was also evidence of some positive improvements flowing from Raducanu’s off-season, notably in the neat drop shot that contributed four of her 27 winners. She was proactive in almost every department, generally looking to keep the rallies short against an opponent who loves to run and run.
If the in-form Gauff is an unkind draw for the first Wednesday of a slam, then Korpatsch was the perfect opener for a woman coming off injury. At 27, Korpatsch has never won a round at a slam, and frankly it is hard to see how she will do so on any surface other than her favoured clay.
A world ranking of 74 is evidence of a strong competitor who will dig deep, but Korpatsch has no weapons in her armoury apart from her physicality and drive. Her ball-strike seems to happen in slow motion, so that Raducanu’s 90mph second serve was faster than her own first delivery.
Coached by her father since she was five, Korpatsch has a homespun, unorthodox technique. She was ill-equipped to cope with the speed and depth of Raducanu’s flat groundstrokes, and especially her return. Korpatsch played five service games in the first set, holding only once.
It wasn’t a match for the ages, but Raducanu looked understandably delighted to have reached the second round after all the frustrations of the past week-and-a-half. She clearly finds Melbourne an extremely congenial city to hang out in, and will now be able to savour at least a few more of her favourite coconut waters before the tennis circus moves on.
In all probability, Gauff – the seventh seed, and the winner of that same Auckland tournament that Raducanu retired from – will be too tough a challenge for a woman who is coming off such disrupted preparation. But at least Raducanu can go out there on Wednesday and have a free swing.