Emma Raducanu put up an absolutely outstanding performance today as the British tennis star demolished eight-time WTA champion Elise Mertens to reach the Wimbledon third round.
Raducanu, who entered this year’s Wimbledon via a wildcard, was expected to have a tough job against former world No. 12 Mertens, who twice in the past made the round-of-16 at The Championships. But it was an ideal day at the office for the 21-year-old Briton, who destroyed the Belgian with just three lost games 6-1 6-2 in an hour and 17 minutes of play.
Against Mertens, Raducanu delivered a clinical performance as the 2021 US Open champion hit 22 winners, broke the Belgian four times and also saved both break points she faced during the match.
Now, Raducanu is set to play against either No. 9 seed Maria Sakkari or Arantxa Rus in the Wimbledon third round.
Emma Raducanu © Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
How Raducanu ousted Mertens?
Raducanu came out firing, breaking Mertens in the second game before saving a break point in the following game to go 3-0 up. After Mertens failed to get the break back, Raducanu broke the Belgian again in the fourth game before serving out the following game to start the match on a run of five consecutive games won.
In the sixth game, Mertens finally held to one of her service games to get on the board and cut the deficit to 1-5. After finally winning a service game, the Belgian had a chance to get one of two Raducanu’s breaks back but didn’t convert a break point in the seventh game as the Briton managed to close out the opener in that game.
After breaking Mertens twice in the opening set, Raducanu earned four break points in the first game of the second set but a bit surprisingly didn’t realize any of it. However, blowing four early break points didn’t impact Raducanu at all, who went on to break Mertens in the third and fifth games and open a very comfortable 5-1 second-set lead.
Just like it was the case in the first set, Mertens held on to her serve after dropping five consecutive games but in the following game Raducanu got the job done on her serve.
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