Madrid — Emma Raducanu played a near flawless match to dismiss Ukrainian teenager Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 in Madrid and reach the last-16 of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time.
US Open champion Raducanu, who is playing just the second tour-level clay-court event of her career, committed just five unforced errors and dropped a mere three points behind her first serve en route to a 64-minute victory.
“I’m definitely very happy with my performance today. Marta is a great opponent,” said Raducanu of her fellow 19-year-old opponent.
"We’ve played several times in the juniors and then once last year.
"I knew it was always going to be a really tough battle so I went out there trying to be really aggressive.
“It’s pretty funny because it’s my first clay-court season and I’m really enjoying it. Madrid is such a cool city and it’s got such a great vibe about it so I definitely want to try and stay here for as long as possible.”
Raducanu will square off with another Ukrainian in the next round in the form of world number 37 Anhelina Kalinina, who posted the first top-10 victory of her career on Sunday by upsetting home favourite and world number nine Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 6-0 in 81 minutes.
Kalinina is making her Madrid debut this week and is contesting just her fourth main draw at the WTA 1000 level.
Earlier in the day, Canadian Bianca Andreescu claimed her first top-10 victory on clay, and first on any surface since the 2019 US Open final, by upsetting world number eight Danielle Collins 6-1, 6-1 in second round action.
Andreescu, who spent six months away from the sport citing mental health reasons, is competing in just her second tournament back and surprised herself by being so dominant in her 69-minute win over Collins, who made the Australian Open final a few months ago.
“I did not expect for it to go like that at all but I stuck to my game plan and it worked so I’m very happy,” said the 21-year-old Andreescu, who is a former world number four but is currently down to 111 in the rankings.
“(The performance gives me) a lot of confidence because I’ve been trying to find my way back and we were talking the other day how I hope it doesn’t take too many matches and I’m just so happy that I was able to get in that zone again,” added Andreescu, who next faces American world number 14 Jessica Pegula.
“I found all the ticks that helped me win my previous matches when I was in the zone, I got that back.”
Japanese star Naomi Osaka is due to take the court later on Sunday to compete in the second round against home favourite Sara Sorribes Tormo.
AFP