MATCH REPORT | 2024 Korea Open: Emma Raducanu escapes in two tie-break sets in tough Stearns tie

Emma Raducanu is through to the second round of the 2024 Korea Open. She will face Yue Yuan who reached the final last year losing out to eventual champion Jessica Pegula.
Raducanu played for the first time since the US Open and sealed a 7-6, 7-6 win over Peyton Stearns. In what is a pretty poor draw given all of the withdrawals, it was a rough ride for both.

The Brit of course is aiming for her previous heights albeit has received criticism over her scheduling. Stearns has done the opposite in her career thus far often playing smaller level tournaments in order to get her ranking up. She has been one of the best new stars of the WTA in the past year.

So overall for both, it was a pretty poor draw and Raducanu escaped in two sets. It could’ve been a lot easier though as she had to scrap to defeat Stearns who is well known for her dogged fighting spirit.
In the opening set, it was back and forth breaks for the most part with Raducanu initially going 4-1 up before throwing away the lead. Stearns came back to lead 5-4 and looked to be in the ascendancy. But a tie-break was forced from there.
Raducanu was pretty emphatic in that coming from 3-1 down to reverse it to 5-3 and sealed it 7-4 to put the first notch on the board.
In a sign of things to come in the second set, the first game lasted longer than most of the set with Raducanu surviving three break points en route to holding serve.

She looked to be heading towards the first set at 5-3 breaking Stearns’ serve. But it wasn’t as simple as that as Stearns broke back albeit after initially going 40-15 up and spurning her chance. She went 6-5 up herself and looked to seal the set. But a pretty emphatic break back from Raducanu saw her force the tie-break. One that she led in for the majority but just about squeaked through 7-5 to win the match