Raducanu rips Stephens in winning Eastbourne debut

Emma Raducanu stepped up her comeback after three years of injury diversions, with the Briton crushing Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-0 to win a battle of former US Open champions at the WTA Eastbourne event on Tuesday.

The No. 168 who reached last week’s semi-finals on grass in Nottingham, said she needed a set to get used to the courts as she made her Devonshire Park debut on the English south coast.

The 75-minute encounter on Centre Court was a nightmare for No. 45 Stephens, who has not won a match at the pre-Wimbledon tune-up in nine years.

Ironically, the American reached the semi-final here in 2015 before her hard luck run began a season later.

Raducanu kept up the momentum from her career-best grass performance at the weekend,  but said she needed to get her bearings in an opening set where she twice recovered from a break down to overhaul Stephens.

“I had to adapt to the court, having never played here,” the 21-year-old US Open winner from 2021 said.

“I had to figure out the best way to play. The first set was tight, she was making a lot of balls and counter punching. I had to hit through hee.

“I figured things out in the second set.”