Katie Boulter and Jack Draper were the big winners in Monday’s grass-court action, and on Tuesday, it was the turn of two more celebrated Britons and former major winners to take to their beloved grass courts.
Having opted to skip the French Open and prioritise the grass-court season, Emma Raducanu’s Nottingham Open first-round match against Japan’s Ena Shibahara marked her first WTA Tour match since April’s dismal Madrid Open defeat to Maria Lourdes Carle.
However, the 2021 US Open winner needed just one hour and 10 minutes to sink Shibahara 6-1 6-4 in Tuesday’s first-round tie, although she had to hold off a late fightback from the Japanese.
At 5-1 up in the second set with a double break under her belt, Raducanu was broken twice while serving for the match, but Shibahara failed to hold serve in the 10th as the ex-British number one staved off that minor scare.
One day after Harriet Dart’s gripes with the umpire in her loss to Boulter, though, Raducanu admitted that she felt like she was “playing two v one”, referring to line calls that she felt were “all against” her.
Nevertheless, the world number 205 can now look ahead to Thursday’s second-round showdown with Daria Snigur of Ukraine, and over in Stuttgart
