Emma Raducanu fights back to sink Linda Noskova at French Open

Throughout the past 11 months as she has made her first journey around the WTA tour, every time Emma Raducanu has stepped on to a tennis court she has had to battle against the greater experience of her opponents as well as the quality of their games. Her sparse competitive record has meant that even opponents around the same age as her marched onto the court far more mentally and physically prepared for the fight to come.

But on a damp, rainy evening on Court Simmone Mathieu, Raducanu faced a completely different scenario. For the first time in her career at the highest level, even on her French Open debut, she was both the elder and more experienced player on the court.

As she faced a picture of precocity in the 17-year-old Czech Linda Noskova, a grand slam qualifying debutant just one week ago who immediately won three rounds to reach her first main draw, Raducanu dug deep to hold her off, recovering from a set and break down to reach the second round in Paris with a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-1 win in 2 hours, 37 mins.

“It was an absolute battle. I have to say Linda is playing some amazing tennis and she really came out there firing. As soon as I dropped my ball speed, she was all over me and killing me from the end of the first set,” said Raducanu.

Even after breaking serve early in the first set, Raducanu was too passive from the beginning, opting to disrupt the youngster with copious loopy balls and elongating points rather than imposing herself from inside the baseline.

Noskova, meanwhile, knew exactly what she wanted to do in the biggest moment of her young career so far: attack. She took the ball daringly early with pristine timing, she smothered all short balls and every time an opportunity to take her favoured backhand