Good afternoon and welcome to coverage of Emma Raducanu versus Kaja Juvan in the second round of the Transylvania Open.
Raducanu, who split with coach Francisco Roig last month, is in Cluj with hitting partner Alexis Canter and looks to be in a good place with her game if her first-round performance against Greet Minnen is anything to go by. The top seed only lost nine points in the first set before eventually closing out the match 6-0, 6-4 in 70 minutes.
Speaking afterwards, Raducanu said: “I think I played a great match. From the beginning I was super aggressive. I played a really tricky opponent in Greet, she starts the point really well so I knew I had to do the same and I’m just really pleased that I stayed with it.”
Whether Raducanu adopts the same aggressive approach to her second-round match remains to be seen, but her opponent today will pose a different challenge.
Juvan, currently 97th in the world rankings, has been ranked as high as 58 in the world. Before this week, the 25-year-old Slovenian was 0-2 on the season. Faced with the tough task of Elena Rybakina in the first round of the Australian Open a fortnight ago, Juvan went down to the eventual champion in straight sets but did manage to register seven games.
In her first-round match two days ago, Juvan saw off Elena Ruxandra Bertea in straight sets – 6-3, 6-4.
This is a first-time meeting between the pair. The winner will play Maja Chwalinska in the quarter-finals.
