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At the end of a bruising, high-quality first set of her third battle in Rome, Emma Raducanu had good reason to seethe. After the significant effort it took to take control against Veronika Kudermetova, Raducanu balked at the chance to serve out the set. She returned to her seat trailing, her opponent carrying all the momentum.
Instead of allowing her frustration to consume her, Raducanu maintained her composure and found her way back with an emphatic exhibition of problem-solving. She emerged from the Forco Italico with another impressive win, recovering to defeat Kudermetova 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 and reach the fourth round of the Italian Open.
As she continues to gain experience on the surface, this week marks the first time in Raducanu’s career that she has won three consecutive matches on clay. She is also rising gradually up the rankings again and now sits at No 42 in the live rankings, two spots from re-establishing herself as the British No 1. Raducanu will next face Coco Gauff, the fourth seed, in a highly anticipated encounter on Monday.
Even before she returned to the court on Sunday, this had been an encouraging week for Raducanu, whose aim at the start of the tournament had simply been to find comfort on the surface through playing attacking tennis. She first escaped the Australian teenager Maya Joint in a late-night three-set psychodrama before dominating the lucky loser Jil Teichmann.
A former top 10 player with a career high ranking of No 9 in 2022, Kudermetova represented a step up in quality and class. Two years ago, she reached the semi-finals of Madrid and Rome consecutively and although the Russian has fallen down to No 50, one spot beneath Raducanu, she has played well this week. On Friday, she defeated the 15th seed Amanda Anisimova.
With both players fully committed to playing offensively in warm, faster conditions, both striking the ball cleanly off both wings, an intense, high quality set followed.
Kudermetova is a tidy offensive baseliner with a solid serve, potent forehand and few obvious weaknesses. She set the tone by performing at a high level from the beginning, pounding her forehand, feasting on Raducanu’s second serve and putting her under constant pressure from early in the point. She quickly snatched the first break for an early 3-1 lead.
Under pressure from a quality opponent playing at a high level, Raducanu hung in impressively, particularly serving extremely well in the decisive moments of her tight service games. She dramatically turned the set around, giving herself a chance to serve for it before her nerves got the better of her. At 5-4, as Kudermetova swung freely, Raducanu played a loose service game that ended with her double faulting down break point.
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Ten minutes later, at the end of a great set from all involved, Kudermetova had converted her own momentum to a 7-5 lead.
After such a high-octane set, every tennis player is vulnerable to a drop-off in level and intensity. Raducanu made sure it was not her. She opened the second set with a break, showing her problem-solving skills by adding greater variety to her game in the set, frustrating Kudermetova by mixing up the spin and height of her shots. Raducanu found an excellent balance between outworking Kudermetova on the clay and stepping inside the baseline to impose herself with her forehand and she began to roll through the set. An increasingly frustrated Kudermetova opted to take a medical time out while trailing 0-5.
Upon the resumption of play, Raducanu closed out the set before continuing to ease through the final set. As has been the case throughout this week, Raducanu’s forehand continued to glitter, imposing itself with its potency and variety. After squandering it early on, this time Raducanu refused to let her momentum pass her by as she confidently closed out an excellent victory.
