Emma Raducanu survives scare to blow rival away at Australian Open

Emma Raducanu avoided another upset as she battled back from an early break down to beat Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4 6-1 at the Australian Open. The No.28 seed had a quick turnaround after losing to Taylah Preston - ranked outside of the top 200 - in Hobart on Thursday, and got off to a slow start in Melbourne before turning things around and running away with the match.

The British No.1’s pre-season preparations were hampered by a foot injury, and she only started practising proper points at the beginning of the year. And she had to work her way into her opening match in Melbourne Park after trailing 1-3 and facing two more break points.

Raducanu’s movement looked hampered early on, and the 23-year-old has also unintentionally extended her forehand swing - something she wants to fix. Ahead of her opening match in Melbourne, she said: “I think it's something that probably happened in the last few weeks.

“It's not something that I really wanted to happen, so I need to kind of look at that and shorten it, because I feel like it's good in certain conditions when it's a little bit slower. But on these very quick courts, it doesn't really work, so I need to adjust that.”

The higher swing was still evident on Sunday night, but Raducanu found her groove in the middle of the first set and never looked back. Spurred on by Aussie cheers of “Rado”, the Brit got back on serve and then broke to take the first set, drawing errors out of the Thai world No.196.

Raducanu kept on rolling, breaking again to start set two as the unusual cheers continued. “Big serve and big forehand, that’s your strengths,” the Aussie fan yelled.

The 28th seed continued to take control of the rallies, breaking Sawangkaew down on both wings and painting the lines with some of her winners. She earned another break and then sealed victory with an ace - her second of the match.

“I feel very happy to have come through that match. From the beginning, I felt like she was playing incredibly well, all of her returns and shots seemed to be dropping inside the baseline,” Raducanu told the Margaret Court Arena crowd.

The British No.1 also gave a special shoutout to her vocal Aussie fan, adding: “A particular shoutout to, Rado apparently is my name. You’re invited to every match!”