Emma Raducanu battles to victory on senior French Open debut as fellow Britons Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans also win in first round

Emma Raducanu fought back from a set and a break down to claim victory on her French Open debut at senior level.

The 19-year-old Brit showed brilliant grit and determination to beat Czech teenager Linda Noskova 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-1 in a gripping first round clash.

Raducanu was given a huge fright by 17-year-old Noskova

But showed tremendous fighting spirit to claim the victory

The US Open champion broke serve twice in the first set but was pegged back to a tie-break by the 17-year-old qualifier which she lost 7-4.

Raducanu was then broken in the second set but managed to hit back to take the second set 7-5 and send the match into a decider.

It was one-way traffic from there as Raducanu went on to comfortably take the final set. Next up for Raducanu is Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in the second round.

It was generally a good day for the British players with Dan Evans claiming his first win at Roland Garros at the fifth time of asking.

The 32-year-old, a first-round loser in each of his four previous main draw appearances, beat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 7-6 (3) 6-4 6-4. Evans takes on Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the second round.

British No.1 Cameron Norrie, fresh from winning his first title on clay in Lyon at the weekend, made short work of French wildcard Manuel Guinard.

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This has been a good few months for Norrie, who won at Indian Wells in October

Norrie took a tight first set and then cruised to a 7-5 6-2 6-0 victory to set up a second-round meeting with Australian qualifier Jason Kubler.

However, there was disappointment for Harriet Dart and Heather Watson, who fell to defeat in their first round matches.

Dart narrowly avoided a dreaded double-bagel for the second time at a grand slam, losing 6-0 6-2 to Italy’s Martina Trevisan in the first round of the French Open.

The 25-year-old from London failed to win a game in a first-round defeat by Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open in 2019.

Dart must have feared a repeat at 6-0 3-0 down, but she at least managed to get a couple of games on the board and can console herself with almost £53,000 in prize money for her hour and 25 minutes’ work.

Meanwhile, Watson lost 6-3 6-3, to Elsa Jacquemot of France.

Source: TalkSport.com Tennis

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