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Emma Raducanu makes light work of Storm Sanders to reach second round in Stuttgart

Britain's Emma Raducanu swept past Storm Sanders of Australia 6-1 6-2 to book her place in the second round at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

The 2021 US Open winner dropped only three games when announcing herself in style in Stuttgart in her first-ever clay court tournament on the WTA Tour.

The 19-year-old showed no sign of a hangover from foot blisters that affected her in her 6-1 6-1 defeat to Marketa Vondrousova in the Billie Jean King Cup last weekend and needed only 70 minutes to send her first-round opponent packing.

"I feel like there were many long deuce games and I'm very happy to have battled through against Storm," Raducanu, who is playing in her first full year on the tour, said on-court.
"She played two matches in qualifying and we played last year. She's extremely tricky and I'm just really happy to have found a way through those long games and put on a good performance."
Right-hander Raducanu landed 83 per cent of her first serves but said she was still a work in progress as she comes to terms with the clay surface.
"The duration of the points, that's something I need to work on as I spend more time on clay," the number eight seed said.
"It will improve my craftiness and variety of shot, so I'm just looking forward to spending more time on this surface moving forward."

Next up for world number 12 Raducanu is a second-round tie against Germany's world number 118, Tamara Korpatsch, who recovered from losing the first set to beat Camila Giorgi of Italy 3-6 7-6(2) 6-1 on Tuesday.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, world number one Iga Swiatek extended her win streak to 20 matches as she thumped qualifier Eva Lys 6-1 6-1 in just one hour and two minutes.

Karolina Pliskova came from 4-1 down in the third set to beat Petra Kvitova 6-4 4-6 7-6(5) in an all-Czech first-round match-up beween two former Stuttgart champions.

READ MORE: The future big three: Has tennis found ready-made successors for Nadal, Djokovic and Federer?

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