EMMA RADUCANU HANDED BRUTAL DRAW FOR FINAL WIMBLEDON WARM-UP EVENT AS SHE FACES A GRAND SLAM WINNER FIRST UP
Emma Raducanu will have her work cut out for her at the 2024 Eastbourne International as she will face a former Grand Slam winner in the first round and potentially a top-five player in the second round.
Following her excellent showing at the Nottingham Open last week, Raducanu will return to action at the WTA 500 event next week after skipping this week’s grass-court action on the WTA Tour.
But she could not have asked for a worse draw as she will take on 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the first round on Monday.
American Stephens, currently at No 48 in the WTA Rankings is coming off a second-round defeat in Birmingham, but she sits more than 100 places above Raducanu in the rankings as the Brit is at No 165.
That No 165 is courtesy of her run to the semi-final in Nottingham as she defeated Ena Shibahara and Daria Snigur before Francisco Jones withdrew from their quarter-final match. Raducanu’s run was ended by Katie Boulter in the last four as she went down in three sets.
But there will be no easy matches for the 21-year-old at Devonshire Park if she is to enjoy a deep run before Wimbledon as she will meet world No 5 Jessica Pegula in the second round if she gets past Stephens.
Should Raducanu get the better of Pegula, then she could meet sixth seed Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-final and third seed Jasmine Paolini in the semi-final.
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The good news for Raducanu is that she is already assured of appearing in the main draw at Wimbledon after being handed a wildcard.
Paolini returns to action for the first time since finishing runner-up to Iga Swiatek at the French Open. The Italian has a bye into the second round and she will face either British wildcard Yuriko Miyazaki or Elise Mertens in her opener while she is projected to meet fifth seed Jelena Ostapenko in the quarters.
Ostapenko, though, could meet Nottingham Open champion Katie Boulter in the second round.
The top half of the draw is headlined by Elena Rybakina, but it remains to be seen if the top seed will play as she retired from her quarter-final match at the Berlin Open due to illness.
Rybakina is due to face either Marie Bouzkova or Harriet Dart in the second round while she is projected to face seventh seed Barbora Krejcikova in the quarter-final. Krejcikova needs to get past Leylah Fernandez in the first round.
Fourth seed Madison Keys also features in the top half and the American is projected to meet eighth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarter-final although Pavlyuchenkova might need to get past 2023 French Open runner-up Karoline Muchova in the second round.
Muchova is set to play her first match of 2023 after struggling with a wrist injury since last year’s US Open.
2024-06-22T16:06:35Z dg43tfdfdgfd