Emma Raducanu opened her grass court season with a comfortable 6-0 6-3 victory over Russian qualifier Anna Blinkova at the HSBC Championships in London.
The British number one was in action for the first time since her disappointing first-round French Open exit, looking for a first win since beating Anastasia Zakharova at Indian Wells in March.
In May the 23-year-old, who has cycled through a steady stream of coaches since winning the US Open as a 2021 qualifier, rehired Andrew Richardson, who had guided her to that triumph.
She has also suffered from the lingering impact of a post-viral illness, missing two and a half months of action before arriving in Paris, where she lost to Solana Sierra.
The Raducanu that emerged on Tuesday afternoon at the Queen’s Club painted a much brighter picture from that conciliatory day on clay, smiling, pumping her fist and dominating the first set, holding the world number 105 to just six points.
The Russian upped her game in the second set, breaking Raducanu twice as the British number one began to struggle with her serve, but Blinkova’s own difficulties returning soon put Raducanu in the position of serving for the match, and she wrapped up the win exactly an hour after it started.
Raducanu reached the quarter-finals at Queen’s last year, when women’s tennis was played there for the first time since 1973.
She said she was hoping to return to a more aggressive form of tennis, with a focus on improving the beginning of points, and got off to a strong start, holding to love in the first game and breaking Blinkova’s serve for the first time in the second.
The Briton made it 3-0 after a brief rain delay, not dropping points on her serve until the fifth game, then swiftly wrapped up the set with her third break point.
Raducanu opened the second set with a win before Blinkova made it more of a test as the pair swapped breaks over the next four games.
The US Open winner briefly found herself losing footing with a series of double faults on what remained a windy afternoon at the Andy Murray Arena, but broke her opponent again to make it 5-3.
She could not bring it to a close with a close-call first match point, but broke into a grin after getting the job done with her second, to set up a second-round meeting with one of Sorana Cirstea or Maddison Inglis.
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