Emma Raducanu admitted she is loving her time in the United Arab Emirates after seeing off Maria Sakkari in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
One particular thing the Brit enjoys is the fact she can go out for walks at all hours of the night. But she conceded that may not be a ‘smart’ call given that she is in completely new surroundings.
“It’s my first time spending a little bit of time here and I’ve really enjoyed it,” Raducanu said in her post-match interview. “What I love most is that everything is open late, and I’m a big night owl, so I can go for my walks at like 11pm. I don’t know if that is smart or not…”
Raducanu was smart enough to pull off a straight-sets win over former world No. 3 and two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Sakkari on Sunday. The 22-year-old came through 6-4 6-2 in just under an hour and a half to set up a second-round clash with 14th seed Karolina Muchova.
Prior to rocking up in Dubai, Raducanu had been on a torrid run of four defeats in a row and three consecutive first-round exits.
Despite showing promise during a run to the third round of the Australian Open in January, she was downed at the Singapore Tennis Open by Cristina Bucsa, the Abu Dhabi Open by Marketa Vondrousova and the Qatar Open by Ekaterina Alexandrova in the space of two weeks.
Raducanu put that worrying spell behind her against Sakkari, who has now suffered three successive straight-sets losses against the youngster.
“In a way we play quite similar,” said Raducanu. “She’s really athletic. I’m not necessarily going to give all my tactics away but it’s a very difficult match every time we play. I’m happy to have won on these occasions and very happy to get to the next round.”
She added: “I just tried to stay really focused on the point in front of me. There were some momentum shifts throughout the match. When I got broken twice I just regrouped really well and managed to break back both times.
“I was really pleased about how I competed against Maria. She’s a top player. She’s been as high as third in the world. I’m really proud of my performance and thanks to everyone for staying late, watching and supporting.”
