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Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu eased into the second round of the Abu Dhabi Open with a straight-sets victory over the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova.
Facing a foe sitting 260 places higher than her in the WTA rankings, Raducanu overcame a sticky start to triumph 6-4 6-1 in her first-ever meeting with Bouzkova, taking 88 minutes to complete the job.
The pair were due to lock horns at the 2022 Citi Open before Bouzkova withdrew, but the world number 36 would make the stronger start to Monday’s contest, breaking Raducanu in her opening service game.
However, that break represented one of six successive losses of serve between the pair before Raducanu stopped the rot in the eighth game, and the former US Open champion earned a remarkable fourth-straight break before taking her second set point.
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Bouzkova saved one break point to hold at the start of the second set, but the Czech would have nothing else to cheer for the remainder of the match, as a ruthless Raducanu won six games on the spin to storm into round two.
The 21-year-old converted seven of the nine break points she brought up in a clinical display and also achieved a 70% win rate on second-serve return points to set up a meeting with Ons Jabeur, seeded second behind Elena Rybakina.
