Emma Raducanu felt like she was ‘playing two v one’ in Ena Shibahara win, Naomi Osaka beats Elise Mertens – Eurosport

Emma Raducanu was unimpressed with some of the line calls, as she claimed a morale-boosting 6-2 6-4 victory over a spirited Ena Shibahara in the Nottingham Open first round.

The 21-year old was making her first appearance of the grass court season, and fended off a late revival from her Japanese opponent, who recovered from 5-1 to 5-4 down in the second set to make it a little bit nervy for the Brit.

The former US Open champion ultimately got the job done in an hour and 10 minutes, but – in the absence of Hawk Eye technology – she had to overcome a flurry of decisions that went against her.

“I feel like I was playing two v one on court – it was insane,” she said.

With Hawk Eye not in operation in Nottingham, there was no challenge system available to players.
The technology will become mandatory on both the ATP and WTA tours in 2025.

But without it, Raducanu felt a number of calls from the line judges should have gone the other way.

“I would have used probably at least four challenges,” she continued.

“I think a lot of the time they go both ways. Today I felt they were all against me but it just makes me feel better that I managed to beat her and the umpire as well.

“It is difficult when there is no challenge but it is something everyone has to deal with. Maybe it was just trying to make the match more competitive.”

Raducanu is not the first player in Nottingham this week to question the officiating.

Fellow Brit Harriet Dart was left furious by one call in her defeat to Katie Boulter on Monday.

Raducanu’s angst peaked when a line judge called a Shibahara volley out, only for the umpire to overturn the decision.

That came in just the third game – with the 21-year-old having already queried two further decisions.

“It’s something I had to deal with and overcome,” she said. “I am very pleased with the attitude I came out with from the get-go and also having to deal with the adversity too.”

Despite those testing moments, Raducanu managed to record a comfortable victory.

Having missed the entirety of the 2023 grass court season due to injury, she was delighted to chalk up an impressive vwin on home soil.

“It’s been quite a few weeks since I last played a competitive match,” she said in her on-court interview.

Raducanu got off to the perfect start by breaking Shibahara in the opening game, before swatting away two break-point opportunities to take a hard-fought hold.

The young Brit’s power to turn the game in her favour came to the fore when she broke the Japanese again to lead 4-1, leaving the former US Open champion in a commanding position.

She moved halfway towards victory after wrapping up the opening set on her a third set point following a mere 31 minutes of play.

Raducanu began the second set with an emphatic hold to love and moved a set and a break ahead at 2-0, with Shibahara gaining little joy on her serve.

Shibahara claimed a confidence-boosting hold of her own, which she rounded off with an ace at 3-1, but there was a sense that this only prolonged an inevitable Raducanu victory.

A host of unforced errors yielded three break points for Raducanu, and she prevailed on the first of those to leave the Brit serving for the match.

She did not take that an opportunity though, as a few mistakes started to creep into Raducanu’s game to give Shibahara an unexpected first break of the match.

Shibahara was in no mood to roll over and followed that up with a comfortable hold herself to leave Raducanu with a second chance to serve for the match.

But from being 5-1 up, she lost her second successive service game and Shibahara was firmly back in the contest.

Eventually, the first match point materialised on Shibahara’s serve and Raducanu sealed the match as her opponent hit a return into the net.

Naomi Osaka eased into the second round of WTA Hertogenbosch with a relatively straightforward 6-2 6-4 win over fourth seed Elise Mertens.

Osaka was making her first appearance on a grass court in five years, but looked assured on the surface.

She would not be breached on serve at any point in the match, and emphatically broke the Belgian in the sixth game to love, moving 4-2 ahead in the sixth.

The 26-year-old wrapped up the opener in a mere 28 minutes after breaking Mertens again in the eighth game, as the latter played a long return.

Neither player showed many chinks in their service games in the second set, until Osaka decisively broke Mertens again in the tenth game on her first match point.

She will face Suzan Lamens in round two after the Dutchwoman overcame American Bernarda Pera in the first round.