Emma Raducanu trounced the former US Open champion Sloane Stephens with a devastating performance at Eastbourne.
While it may only have been a first-round win, this 6-4, 6-0 victory felt like Raducanu’s best effort on grass since she first burst into the national consciousness by reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2021.
Admittedly, Stephens did rather give up the chase, dropping her intensity noticeably after going down a break in the second set. But Raducanu had been forced to earn her advantage after a tight and nervy first half-hour.
Once she had claimed the opening set, however, she was untouchable as she romped to victory in just 76 minutes. Her second-set performance delivered 13 clean winners to place against just one unforced error, leaving a demoralised Stephens counting down the seconds until she could finally sneak off the court.
The key game came at 4-4 in the first set, as Raducanu served and went 15-40 down. She saved the two break points brilliantly, first stranding Stephens with a perfectly judged drop shot – the only time she used this ploy in the match – and then banging down an ace.
After an extended to-and-fro, Raducanu held for 5-4 and then reeled off another seven games to march into the second round in fine fettle.
After concluding the win, which should carry her back into the world’s top 150 even if she doesn’t win another match in Eastbourne, Raducanu performed an on-court interview in which she said “For me it was a case of adapting to the court, I have never played out on this Centre Court before and every grass court plays very differently.