Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the Abu Dhabi open second-round match between Emma Raducanu and world No6 Ons Jabeur. Raducanu is here by virtue of her 6-4, 6-1 victory over world No 36 Marie Bouzkova on Monday and Tunisia’s double Wimbledon singles runner-up got through because she’s the No 2 seed and was given a first-round bye. These two have never met before but the word from the Emirate is that the relative lack of bounce on the court ought to favour Jabeur despite her rather shonky form since her great disappointment in last year’s Wimbledon final.
Raducanu, understandably, was cock-a-hoop about her victory even if the trading of losses of serve in the first set before she summoned the old aggression and blew Bouzkova away was slightly worrying. “I think in the beginning I was just adjusting to the speed of the court. I hadn’t played on this court this year yet, so I was kind of just adjusting,” she said.
“It was pretty quick and also a lot more still than it had been for the week, because it’s been very windy, so it was a different tempo. Marie is a really tough opponent. I knew that going in I was going to have to play so many balls and I think in the beginning I was missing a few of the finishing shots, but I cleaned that up so I’m very happy about it.”
Victory for Jabeur would represent one more step along the path to her ultimate goal, as she told Forbes last year, but she also has a broader mission in mind. “I want to show the girls from my region that you can do anything, that nothing is impossible, that you could be successful, not just in sport but in business in general, in fashion, music or anything,” she said.
“But the most important thing,” she continues, “is that I know I won’t give up until I achieve what I meant to achieve. I try to use that pressure as something very positive for me, to move forward and hopefully get that Grand Slam one day.”