{"id":377875,"date":"2026-01-19T03:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T03:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377875\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T03:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T03:14:11","slug":"emma-raducanu-eager-to-improve-a-lot-more-after-australian-open-first-round-win-over-mananchaya-sawangkaew-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377875\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu eager to &#8216;improve a lot more&#8217; after Australian Open first-round win over Mananchaya Sawangkaew | Tennis News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Emma Raducanu was thrilled with her straight-sets win in the opening round of the Australian Open on Sunday, but insists she can &#8220;improve a lot more&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>After a slow start to the match against Thailand&#8217;s world No 195 Mananchaya Sawangkaew, Raducanu won 10 of the final 11 games to cruise to a 6-4, 6-1 victory.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old had a rushed build-up for the tournament because of injury, only returning to the court in late December as a result of a foot problem that had lingered since the end of last season.<\/p>\n<p>        Twitter<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Having only had two weeks out here of playing, I&#8217;m happy with the level and happy with the speed at how I&#8217;ve kind of found my feet on the match court,&#8221; Raducanu said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It gives me confidence that if I keep doing the right things, put chunks of work in and good blocks of practice, I can improve a lot more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Raducanu rallied back from 3-1 down, facing two break points at 15-40 on her own serve, in the opening set and credited the support of one Australian super-fan in the stands as helping inspire her comeback.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Apparently, Down Under. I&#8217;ve got Raddo,&#8221; she said of her new nickname. &#8220;Never heard that before. Pretty original!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously I loved the support. I thought it was great on both sides. To have that on my side, in the big moments, it was a good spur of encouragement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He can come to any match. I just need to try to locate him. I hope he comes back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Raducanu: I&#8217;m at my best when not quiet<\/p>\n<p>Raducanu admitted she too was trying to be a bit more vocal out on the court during her evening-session match which started not long before 9.45pm local time in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re playing in the first round, you&#8217;re inevitably nervous,&#8221; Raducanu added.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768792451_287_skysports-emma-raducanu-tennis_7138808.jpg\"   alt=\"Emma Raducanu of Britain reacts after winning a point against Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand during their first round match at the Austra\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Emma Raducanu will face Anastasia Potapova in the second round<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a slam, a big match and your opponent is playing very well. It&#8217;s late at night, and so to keep the energy high, to keep motivation, I think it was good for me to just stay positive, stay upbeat.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it did help me. When I&#8217;m at my best competing, I&#8217;m not completely quiet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It depends on the day. Today I felt like that would help me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Much stiffer tests await for the British No 1, with Russian-turned-Austrian Anastasia Potapova lying in wait next, and potentially world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the third round.<\/p>\n<p>\n        Raducanu&#8217;s projected path to Australian Open glory\n      <\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text\">Round One: Mananchaya Sawangkaew (Win: 6-4 6-1)<\/p>\n<p>Round Two: Anastasia Potapova<\/p>\n<p>Round Three: Aryna Sabalenka<\/p>\n<p>Round Four: Victoria Mboko<\/p>\n<p>Quarter-Finals: Jasmine Paolini<\/p>\n<p>Semi-Finals: Coco Gauff<\/p>\n<p>Final: Iga Swiatek<\/p>\n<p>Of her next opponent, the world No 55, who she&#8217;ll play on Wednesday, Raducanu said: &#8220;I remember Anastasia always being the player to watch and beat through juniors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s been very highly-ranked as well in the pros. She got a really tough match today so that must give her a lot of confidence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A big hitter. I know it&#8217;s going to be a really tricky one. I need to just gather my strength and prepare as best as possible for the next match.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, live on Sky Sports or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nowtv.com\/watch-sky-sports-online?DCMP=ilc_skysports_nc_articlelink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stream with NOW<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11677\/12572660\/download-the-sky-sports-app-premier-league-goals-f1-race-control-and-more-at-your-fingertips\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky Sports app<\/a>, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11095\/13131189\/sky-sports-plus-launches-in-august-to-give-more-choice-to-fans-via-live-streams-app-and-new-channel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Find out more here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu was thrilled with her straight-sets win in the opening round of the Australian Open on Sunday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-377875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}