Emma Raducanu defeats Sloane Stephens on Australian Open debut

By George Ramsay, CNN

Updated 1503 GMT (2303 HKT) January 18, 2022

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(CNN)Emma Raducanu got off to a winning start on her Australian Open debut, defeating Sloane Stephens 6-0 2-6 6-1 on Margaret Court Arena.

The 19-year-old Raducanu, playing in her first grand slam match since winning the US Open last year, stormed through the first set in just 17 minutes against Stephens, herself a US Open champion in 2017.But the momentum swung in Stephens' favor in the second set as the American broke Raducanu on three occasions to level Tuesday's match. Battling through some long rallies in the final set, Raducanu moved into a 5-0 lead and went on to wrap up the match just before midnight (8 a.m. ET) in Melbourne. «Both me and Sloane really put everything out there and gave it all we had,» Great Britain's Raducanu