Emma Raducanu defeats Elena-Gabriela Ruse in first-round encounter at National Bank Open in Montreal;The US Open is live on Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports+, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app from August 24
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Emma Raducanu continued the winning feeling by sealing a comfortable victory in her opening match of the National Bank Open in Montreal on Monday.
She picked up statement wins over Marta Kostyuk, four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka and former world No 3 Maria Sakkari en route to the final four in Washington last week and she continued the feel-good factor at the WTA 1000 tournament in Canada.
Raducanu, who jumped 13 places in the rankings to world No 33 to reclaim her position as British No 1, eased past Elena-Gabriela Ruse from Romania 6-2 6-4 in front of coach Mark Petchey after their partnership was left up in the air following her Wimbledon third-round defeat.
R1: Ruse – Win 6-2 6-4R2: StearnsR3: AnisimovaR4: Svitolina/MertensQF: Pegula/Ostapenko/SamsonovaSF: Swiatek/Keys/Bencic/MuchovaF: Gauff/Paolini/Andreeva/Rybakina
Raducanu, who will next face American 32nd seed Peyton Stearns in the second round, said: “I’m so happy to come through that. I know Elena, she’s a very good friend of mine, and it’s difficult when you have to play someone you’re close to, so I’m really proud of how I put that to one side for the match and backed up a good week last week in DC and performed well today.
“It’s extremely difficult [to play someone you know]. We spent a lot of time together in off-court practices, and she’s a great girl.
It’s not nice when you see her name in the draw but I’m really pleased with how I performed with myself.”
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33rd Emma Raducanu43rd Katie Boulter48th Sonay Kartal84th Fran Jones
Source: Skysports
