Emma Raducanu returns to Wimbledon: Live score and game-by-game updates from Centre Court as former US Open champion faces lucky loser Renata Zarazua
15:21
Conditions seem primed...
The 21-year-old’s run-up a year after missing out on the competition altogether has been a promising one. After struggling to get to grips with clay, Raducanu reached the semi-finals on grass at Nottingham before a narrow defeat to eventual winner Katie Boulter, and the quarters at Eastbourne against Daria Kasatkina - who also went on to win the title on the south coast.
She also claimed the biggest scalp of her career, beating world No5 Jessica Pegula in her first (ever!) win against a top-10 player.
A comfortable way to start a competition where Raducanu would like expectations to be kept manageably low.
15:16
Good afternoon!
Hello and welcome to Centre Court, where we are poised and ready for the first British hope to step onto the hallowed turf - Emma Raducanu, up in just a few minutes time for her first-round tie with Renata Zarazua.
Without having hit a tennis ball, Raducanu’s morning has - at least on the surface - appeared charmed. First came news that the former British No1’s opponent Ekaterina Alexandrova had withdrawn due to illness, setting up a tie with a lucky loser ranked 98th in the world.
Then, another spell of possible good fortune, with the disappointing withdrawal of world No3 Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian has been struggling with a rare shoulder injury, and found her final practice session on Monday morning too much to take.
Sabalenka was possibly the biggest pitfall awaiting Raducanu in what now looks like a very open section of the draw indeed. That is, if Raducanu can pass her first test, on the biggest stage of all.
Play has just wrapped up between defending men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz and Mark Lajal, with the Spaniard winning in a not-as-straight-forward-as-it-first-appears straight sets victory against the Estonian qualifier.
Not long to go now!
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