Italian Open: Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie secure first-round wins but Katie Boulter is beaten

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Italian Open: Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie secure first-round wins but Katie Boulter is beaten

After taking a tight first set, Raducanu was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second when a resurgent Joint fought back and was able to take the former US Open champion to a tie-break, which the 19-year-old breezed through 7-1.

Raducanu then had to regroup for the deciding set and raced into a 5-0 lead, only to be pegged back again by Joint who won the next three games. She finally closed out the set on serve after two hours and 44 minutes.

The 22-year-old Raducanu returned to action in April after taking a month-long break from competitive tennis. She made it through to the second round at the Madrid Open two weeks ago but fell to a straight-set defeat by Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.

In the men’s competition, British number three Norrie was defeated by Serbian Dusan Lajovic in the qualifying round on Tuesday, but he received a spot in the main draw as a lucky loser.

The 29-year-old dropped just five games against O’Connell in a 76-minute match and told Sky Sports he channelled his anger into overcoming the *********** following his disappointing performance against Lajovic.

“I was sharp, I didn’t give him much and I played some physical tennis,” said Norrie. “I was just really happy I turned that energy around.”

For Boulter, after earning the first WTA clay-court win of her career last month in Madrid, she struggled to repeat the same form in Rome against Pavlyuchenkova, despite the former French Open finalist being on a four-match losing streak.

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