A record 3 out of 4 Brits have advanced to round 2 of the Mutua Madrid Open, with both Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal winning in straight sets against Suzan Lamens and Jaqueline Cristian respectively, to join Tuesday’s winner, Katie Boulter, while qualifier Fran Jones put up a mighty fight but eventually fell to Dayan Yastrzemski on Wednesday.
I know I had to play really well to win, and although it wasn’t always my best, I got stuck-in at the right moments. I’m proud of how I competed. It is a strength of mine, when I can use it. It’s, for sure, different stepping into the competition, especially on clay. I haven’t played many matches on this surface, so it does feel a little foreign to me.
Emma Raducanu
Raducanu’s return to the tour saw her win a hard-fought battle against Lamens, 7-6(4) 6-4, after coming from a break down in both sets to defeat the Dutchwoman and record her first win on outdoor clay courts since 2022.
“I’m happy with how I, kind of, worked my way into the match,” Raducanu said. “I played an opponent in great form, who has won a lot of matches on clay, so I knew I had to play really well to win.
“I don’t think I played my best level, but I think I competed really well.”
The former US Open champion missed most of the 2023 clay swing due to multiple wrist and ankle surgeries, then cut short her 2024 season on the dirt after falling in her Madrid opener to Maria Lourdes Carle.
Playing competitively for the first time in almost a month, having taken a “physical and mental” break after reaching the Miami Open quarter-finals last month, where she opted instead for a 10-day training block in Los Angeles with Mark Petchey, who is coaching her on an informal basis, Raducanu met Lamens for the first time in their careers.
Neither fully hit their stride in the first set, until, trailing 6-5, Lamens found her range on a succession of booming forehands to force a tiebreak, where she found a trio of excellent winners to lead 3-2 with the mini-break, only to let it slip away with a series of unforced errors, culminating in a shanked backhand down set point.
The 25-year-old, ranked 73, regained her forehand form to break Raducanu for 2-0 in the second set, only to gift the break back with a double-fault.
At 3-3, they delivered their best tennis at the same time in a stellar 6-deuce tussle, in which the Dutchwoman had 5 opportunities to hold, but was denied each time as Raducanu unleashed on her return.
When the Brit finally conjured up her first break point of the game, courtesy of a forehand winner, she converted immediately when Lamens netted a backhand.
That game proved decisive, and Raducanu motored to the finishing line from there, playing a more water-tight match than Lamens by tallying 19 winners to her opponent’s 26, and keeping her unforced error count down to 33, compared to the Dutchwoman’s 42.
“I know I had to play really well to win, and although it wasn’t always my best, I got stuck-in at the right moments,” said 22-year-old Raducanu, who next will face No 24 seed Marta Kostyuk from Ukraine in the 2nd round. “I’m proud of how I competed. It is a strength of mine, when I can use it.”
“It’s, for sure, different stepping into the competition, especially on clay. I haven’t played many matches on this surface, so it does feel a little foreign to me.”
Raducanu and Kostyuk previously met at the same stage of the tournament in 2022, with Raducanu winning 6-2 6-1 to level their overall head-to-head at one win apiece.
British No 3 Sonay Kartal defeated Jaqueline Cristian in straight sets in Madrid, her first WTA main-draw victory on clay.
© Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Later, British No 3 Sonay Kartal improved her record against Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian to 2-1 overall, with a 6-2 7-5 win, her first WTA main-draw victory on clay.
Kartal more than played her part in Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup recent success with 2 wins on the indoor clay at The Hague, but that did not translate to success in Rouen, where she was bundled out of the 1st round.
She had split the head-to-head with Cristian, who also faltered in Rouen, but Kartal had beaten her in Monastir on the way to her first title, which gave the Brit a confidence edge in the tight contest on Wednesday.
Kartal moves on to meet Ukrainian No 1 Elina Svitolina, the 17th seed here, who is fresh off her title win in Rouen.
Qualifier Fran Jones, the British No 5, pushed Dayana Yastremska hard but fell in 3 sets on Day 2 of the Mutua Madrid Open at La Caja Magica.
© Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
After distressing scenes in Bogota where Fran Jones collapsed in the deciding set, the British No 5 returned to clay court action in the Oeiras ITF event and then fought through a couple of tough rounds of qualifying to make the 1st round here in Madrid, where she was making her debut at the WTA 1000 event.
Clay tends to be Jones’ fall-back, but she faced another potentially tough task against Dayana Yastremska, who is rising up the ranks at a rapid pace this year and who made the 3rd round here last year.
Jones forced Yastremska to fight hard to overcome the qualifier, 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3, in a 3-set battle that lasted 2 hours and 27 minutes.
The Ukrainian advances to meet 4th-seeded Coco Gauff in round 2.
