Raducanu begins Roig partnership with victory against Danilovic in Cincinnati | Emma Raducanu

The era of Francisco Roig of the career of Emma Raducanu began with a positive performance while the 30th seeded beaten Olga Danilovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 during a stifling day in the second round at the Open of Cincinnati.

Raducanu’s recent progress has been motivated by its reliability against lower adversaries and it now has 19-4 against players in the last year. Having spent a large part of the past four years to fight to chain victories together, she is now also in the match as she has never been.

She said: “You always feel a little nerves before the first round, but I think that overall, I am approaching everything in a much calmer, mature way, and I think I’m doing a lot more

A much larger test awaits Raducanu, who had received a bye in the first round due to his status as a seeded player, in the third round. Revenge of Wimbledon is guaranteed because it will face the world number 1, Aryna Sabalenka, his conqueror in the third round, the Wimbledon champion in 2023 Marketa Vondrouso, which Raducanu defeated in the second round this summer.

Raducanu was supported by the crowd by Roig, which has always offered tactical advice from its position next to the basic line. Although their partnership has even less than a week old, she thinks that Roig has already made a positive difference in her game. “I think the way I play, the movements of my shot, improving the quality of my shot,” she said. “There were four or five points where I did something on which we worked on, and it is always really satisfactory and enriching when you hit a blow and you worked there in practice. So I think I will improve a lot, I hope to do the work day after day.”

After their first conversations on his game, Raducanu and Roig quickly agreed that the main objective of their work is to improve his global level. “It’s just, as, the level must be better. In the right direction, not in a negative way. He only calls him like that,” she said. “And I’m very like that. I am very completely factual and I do not necessarily like to mobilize something. I think this is where we are doing very well and we understand each other. In general, everything is like: “We have to improve. We have to do better. And it’s exciting, because I have the impression that there is a lot of potential to do and I don’t think I’m near there. “”

During her previous appearance in Cincinnati two years ago, where she dismantled Serena Williams during the last month of her career and Victoria Azarenka in consecutive matches, Raducanu showed that the faster shorts suit her well. This time, however, she had the oppressive heat to manage. The temperature on the champions court has increased to 30 ° C (85F) with considerable humidity.

Raducanu opened the match with three loose non -forced errors and a double fault to abandon his opening service to love. A constant aggression of Danilovic, an ultra-offensive left-hander with a great service and a forehand but a bad movement, allowed the Serb to dictate the majority of the first exchanges. In the opening matches, Raducanu was forced to scratch behind the baseline, chasing the balls while trying to cause unl forced mistakes of his opponent for a large part of the first set.

However, Raducanu’s depth of service has been brilliant from the start, constantly refusing to Danilovic the short balls she was looking for behind her first service. Raducanu has also defended well, now its depth and patiently seeks opportunities to take the ball early and attack. Faced with this intensity, the number of Danilovic errors has increased throughout.

After having struggled to serve very early, Raducanu gradually grew up in confidence. From her uncertain position behind the baseline, she ended a compound and effective performance hitting the ball early and putting the laborious movement of Danilovic under constant pressure when she relaxed in the third round.

A year after missing most of the North American swing, including the Cincinnati Open, before its first round loss to Flushing Meadows, Raducanu is in a fairly different position. His race on the hard-working shorts started with two positive projections, reaching the semi-finals of the WTA 500 event in Washington before winning two games last week in Montreal. Now she will have another opportunity to test her level against one of the best in the world.

Elsewhere, Iga Swiatek, the Wimbledon champion, continued her excellent form by trying in the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 victory against Anastasia Potapova. Jannik Sinner, the male 1, returned for the competition for the first time since his triumph of Wimbledon with an easy victory 6-1, 6-1 against Daniel Elahi Galán.