Emma Raducanu has provisionally sealed a key WTA Rankings milestone following an impressive opening-match win on her China Open debut.<\/p>\n
World No 32 Raducanu<\/a>, the 30th seed at the WTA 1000 event, looked in fine form as she saw off Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-3 to progress to the third round in Beijing, having initially received a round-one bye at the tournament.<\/p>\n The Brit had suffered a painful defeat in her last match versus Barbora Krejcikova at the Korea Open, spurning match points in a three-set loss<\/a>, though she was in a much more confident mood on Saturday against world No 67 Bucsa in the Chinese capital.<\/p>\n Raducanu lost her serve just once and was largely in control throughout against the 27-year-old Spaniard, who reached round three at Wimbledon and round four of the US Open this summer.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it was super difficult, Cristina was playing amazing today,\u201d said Raducanu in her on-court interview.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my first time [playing] here in China, so I\u2019m very happy to have gotten over it, and after a tough one last week, to come back and bounce back.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to do my best, I really want to do well here. I\u2019m half Chinese, so it\u2019s great to come back here.\u201d<\/p>\n Ranked 32nd in the world coming into the tournament, Raducanu was already up one place to world No 31 in the WTA Live Rankings before stepping onto court at the China Open, after world No 29 Anna Kalinskaya was beaten in her opening match.<\/p>\n Tennis News<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek makes WTA history as she hits 4 incredible milestones with China Open win<\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner improves one key shot as he eyes up push to reclaim world No 1 spot<\/a><\/p>\n And, the Brit\u2019s impressive win over Bucsa has now propelled her provisionally inside the top 30 in the live rankings, in what would be her highest ranking since September 2022.<\/p>\n She currently holds 1,563 points in the live rankings after beating Bucsa, placing her level on points with world No 29 Veronika Kudermetova \u2014 who is also through to round three at the event.<\/p>\n Raducanu has not been inside the top 30 of the WTA Rankings since falling in the opening round of her US Open title defence back in 2022, dropping down outside the top 50 at that point.<\/p>\n The Brit will now look to continue her rankings surge on her China Open debut next but faces an incredibly tough test against world No 7 and fifth seed Jessica Pegula<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pegula breezed past Ajla Tomljanovic in her opening match and won her previous meeting against Raducanu, though the Brit did push the American to three sets at the Miami Open in March.<\/p>\n However, Raducanu did beat Pegula in three sets at the Eastbourne International in 2024, with the American leading the overall head-to-head 2-1.<\/p>\n