By Rory Carroll
INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) – Emma Raducanu knocked out Polish 20th seed Magda Linette 7-6(3) 6-2 on Saturday to reach the third round of Indian Wells and notch her biggest win since triumphing at the U.S. Open in 2021.
The 20-year-old Briton fell into a 4-1 first set hole but rallied from there, dictating points with her forehand to push Linette deep into the court.
She sealed the win by whipping a forehand winner down the line to bring the fans to their feet on a warm and windy day in the Southern California desert.
The win marked Raducanu’s first back-to-back victories since September and is a hopeful sign that she may be moving beyond the multiple health issues that have beset her of late.
She suffered an ankle injury in the lead up to January’s Australian Open, tonsillitis that forced her to withdraw ahead of last week’s Austin Open and a flaring up of the wrist injury, which had cut short her 2022 season and required attention from a physiotherapist on Saturday.
“I’d say I feel more positive about my game today,” Raducanu told reporters.
“The first day I didn’t really know what was going on. Today I felt pretty decent out there, especially with the conditions. It was really windy and I did well to overcome it.”
She will next face either Czech Katerina Siniakova or Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.
Elsewhere, Czech Karolina Muchova scored an impressive 7-6(1) 6-3 win in her tournament debut over two-time champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Czech Marketa Vondrousova crushed her compatriot, the 28th-seeded Marie Bouzkova, 6-1 6-1.
On the men’s side, Italian 11th seed Jannik Sinner beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3 7-6(2), eighth seed Felix Auger Aliassime of Canada was a 7-6(5) 6-4 winner over Spain’s Pedro Martinez and Jack Draper won an all-British battle against 24th seed Dan Evans 6-4 6-2.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Indian Wells, California, Pritha Sarkar)
