Emma Raducanu beats Moyuka Uchijima to reach second round at Korea Open in Seoul

ByJames Walker-Roberts

Updated 21/09/2022 at 15:16 GMT

Emma Raducanu is into the second round of the Korea Open after a straight-sets win over world No. 126 Moyuka Uchijima. The former US Open champion survived a late scare after losing four games in a row in the second set and next faces Yanina Wickmayer. In Tokyo, the top two seeds, Paula Badosa and Caroline Garcia, both suffered surprise losses.

Emma Raducanu produced a solid performance to beat Moyuka Uchijima in the first round of the Korea Open in Seoul.

The 19-year-old double-faulted on match point when 5-0 up in the second set, but still came through 6-2 6-4.

Raducanu will next face world No. 460 Yanina Wickmayer, and is looking to climb back up the rankings after falling more than 60 places following her early US Open exit. She was ranked in the top 10 a month ago but is now No. 77 in the world after losing in the first round in New York when she was defending champion.

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Raducanu was too good for Uchijima, who is ranked 126th in the world.

The British No. 1 broke twice in the first set and only dropped three points behind her own serve.

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It looked like she would wrap up a swift victory as she went 5-0 and 40-15 ahead in the second set.

However, Uchijima managed to hold on and then won four games in a row before Raducanu served out the win in one hour and 18 minutes.

There were two upsets in Tokyo as top seed Paula Badosa and second seed Caroline Garcia both lost.

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Badosa was beaten 6-3 6-2 in 78 minutes by 19-year-old Zheng Qinwen while Garcia lost to Zhang Shuai.

Garcia had a match point and served 27 aces – the highest in a match on the WTA Tour this season - but went down 4-6 7-6(5) 7-6(5) to suffer just her second loss in her last 15 matches.

Third seed Garbine Muguruza is in the quarter-finals while defending champion Naomi Osaka faces fifth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia on Thursday.

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