Emma Raducanu breezed past 32nd seed Peyton Stearns in a swift 95-minute match, setting the stage for an exciting showdown with Amanda Anisimova in Montreal.<\/p>\n
The former U.S. Open<\/a> champion, who struggled with the heat during her last tournament<\/a>, overcame an early setback in the second set to secure a 6-2, 6-4 victory on Wednesday. Next up is fifth seed Anisimova, who is participating in her first tournament since making it to her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n Raducanu<\/a>, who has made a decision on her U.S. Open partnership<\/a> with Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, and Anisimova share a close friendship. Raducanu, currently ranked 33rd in the world, has triumphed in both of their encounters this year.<\/p>\n Raducanu’s performance has been stellar in recent weeks. She gave world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka a run for her money at Wimbledon before exiting in the third round, and subsequently made it to the semifinals in Washington.<\/p>\n This is the 22-year-old’s debut appearance in Montreal, as the ATP and WTA 1000 events alternate between Montreal and Toronto. However, she’s off to a strong start in Quebec.<\/p>\n After defeating her friend Elena-Gabriela Ruse on Monday, Raducanu was back in action against formidable American opponent Stearns. She broke twice to dominate the first set and then rallied from 4-2 down to win the last four games of the match.<\/p>\n “I know Peyton is a really tough opponent, we’ve played two times in the past and always had really long matches. I’m really happy with how I came through in that match,” Raducanu told the crowd.<\/p>\n “I kind of lost my focus at some moments in the second set, and she took advantage, but very happy that I came through against a top opponent and happy to extend my stay in Montreal.”<\/p>\n Raducanu also shares a unique bond with Canada, the nation where she was born. Several British supporters were present in the Montreal crowd to rally behind her.<\/p>\n She added: “I just want to say thank you, I saw the Union Jack in clutch moments and I was actually born in Canada, so to come back and to me it means so much to do well here and very happy to be into the next round.”<\/p>\n The British No. 1 will now face Anisimova, who advanced directly to the second round after defeating Lulu Sun 6-4, 7-6(5). Despite their friendship, Raducanu and Anisimova’s personal relationship won’t soften the competitive edge when they meet on court.<\/p>\n Following her victory over another close friend in the opening round, the former U.S. Open champion remarked: “It’s very difficult to play someone who you’re close to.”<\/p>\n However, the 22-year-old has dominated their recent encounters this season. Raducanu has already defeated the world No. 7 at both the Australian Open and Miami Open, and she’ll be aiming to secure a third consecutive victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu breezed past 32nd seed Peyton Stearns in a swift 95-minute match, setting the stage for an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[3228,64,63,21345,938,85,747,6414,31838,1751],"class_list":{"0":"post-34669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-amanda-anisimova","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-emma-raducanu","12":"tag-montreal","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-tennis-section","16":"tag-u-s-open-champion","17":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}