Emma Raducanu serves up a shot of euphoria as she wins her first match on Wimbledon's Centre Court
28.06.2022 - 11:43
/ msn.com
Wimbledon. Emma Raducanu jumped up and down with excitement and shook the umpire's hand. Then she ran back on court again to skip a full 360-degree jig of joy.
It was the sort of reaction you might expect from someone who had just won a tournament, not from a reigning Grand Slam champion after squeezing through to the second round. Her sentiment was replicated right around the All England Club among the crowds celebrating the first proper day of the first full Wimbledon tournament in three years. Early rains had moved on, trains were running and Britain could at long last pin its Wimbledon hopes on someone other than Sir Andy Murray.
However, the fact that this was also Emma's first appearance on Centre Court was a reminder of the extraordinary twists in the very brief Raducanu story so far. This time last year, she was a rank outsider awaiting her A-level results. Three months later, she was lifting the trophy at the US Open and being congratulated by the Queen.
However, Covid and a string of low-level injuries have sought to spoil the fairy tale. This year opened with a series of defeats followed by her withdrawal from the usual Wimbledon warm-up at Eastbourne. So a great deal was riding on yesterday's first-round clash with Belgium's Alison Van Uytvanck – by common consent a very tough opponent.
And Emma really wasn't making it easy. Serving for the first time, she fluffed serve after serve, advantage point after advantage point. At the outset, I talked to the crowd in front of the giant screen on what they used to call Henman Hill.
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