British number one Emma Raducanu overcame her emotions to battle to victory against Jaqueline Cristian of Romania in the first round of the Korea Open.
Raducanu, who withdrew from Great Britain’s team for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals to play at the tournament in Seoul, looked like she was on the verge of tears at one stage in the first set before going on to win 6-3 6-4.
The 22-year-old’s emotions almost appeared to get the better of her after she had netted a forehand and faced two break points at 3-3 in the first set of a match which had been delayed because of rain.
Nevertheless, Raducanu regained her composure to hold serve and, thanks to a double fault from Cristian, took a 5-3 lead.
Raducanu saved two break points when serving for the set before she took it in one hour and seven minutes.
The world number 33 produced a stunning running forehand winner down the line as she twice broke back against Cristian, who is 41st in the women’s rankings, early in the second set.
Raducanu then broke in the ninth game to serve for the match and, despite facing a break point, secured a hard-fought victory in two hours and two minutes.
“I’m super happy to have won,” said Raducanu, who believed playing on the WTA tour instead of the BJK Cup would be better for both the long-term development of her game and her fledgling partnership with new coach Francisco Roig.
“It hasn’t been easy. I feel like I’ve played this match the last three days. To have pulled through after waiting, I’m super pleased at how I came through.
“Jaqueline is a really tough opponent and has had great results recently.
“[They were] tough conditions, very slow, long rallies and long points, so happy to have got through.”
Raducanu will play two-time Grand Slam winner Barbora Krejcikova, who beat Tatiana Prozorova 6-1 6-2, in the next round.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Cameron Norrie suffered a surprise defeat at the Chengdu Open as the world number 34 was beaten in three sets by China’s Yi Zhou, who is 304th in the men’s rankings.
Norrie had a match point at 5-4 up in the third set but ended up losing 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-7 (2-7) in the last 32 match.