Emma Raducanu was determined to show teenage compatriot Mimi Xu who is boss in their “awkward” first-round encounter at Wimbledon.
It is four years since Raducanu launched her rocket to stardom by reaching the last 16 of Wimbledon as an 18-year-old.
Xu is only 17, and she will surely have many more chances to write her own success story at SW19, but she was unable to really test the British number one’s nerve, with Raducanu easing to a 6-3 6-3 victory.
Raducanu and Xu are friendly having hit together at the Billie Jean King Cup finals in November, while Raducanu practises her Mandarin by speaking to Xu’s mother.
Shared heritage or not, this was a contest Raducanu wanted to stamp her authority on quickly, and she was particularly vocal, her shouts of ‘Come on’ punctuating the contest.
“When the draw came out, I can’t say I was loving it,” said Raducanu with a smile in her on-court interview.
In the press room later she added: “First rounds are never easy. It was an interesting dynamic today, so I’m really pleased to have got through that.
“It’s really awkward playing a Brit, especially someone younger. She’s a great player with big weapons. Congrats for her to get the wild card opportunity. I’m sure she’s going to do great things in the future. I think that I just really wanted to win that match.”
It has not been an easy build-up for the 22-year-old, who has been dealing with some bad personal news as well as a niggling back problem.
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She smiled and waved as she entered Court One to cheers, though, while Xu had her ears covered by large headphones.
The Swansea schoolgirl made a nervous start and Raducanu immediately broke serve but holding a long third game settled Xu down and she began to show why she is considered such a good prospect.
Xu sent down serves close to 120mph and troubled Raducanu on occasion with her powerful ground strokes but a missed second serve return at 4-3 30-30 showed her inexperience, and the first set disappeared in a slew of errors.
While Xu left the court to change, Raducanu showed she is not above a bit of mid-match litter picking, collecting a champagne cork that had flown from the stands on to the court with a chuckle and putting it in a bin.
“It was a first,” said Raducanu. “Pretty entertaining. I’m glad they were having a good time. It loosened me up a bit at the end of the first set. I can’t not laugh at that.”
Xu’s best moments came early in the second set when she twice broke the Raducanu serve, earning her reward for staying on the front foot and going for the lines.
She could not hold her own delivery, though, and Raducanu clinched her first match point after an hour and 25 minutes to maintain her record of never having lost in the first round.
Xu relished the experience, saying: “It’s such an honour to play against her on my debut. She’s such a hard worker because I train with her at the NTC (National Tennis Centre).
“Honestly, I don’t think I would have wanted it any different. I’ve learned so much from this match, from playing her, how she deals with these moments and what the differences were there against a top player. I think I can do a lot of things in my game to improve it further.”
Raducanu’s path gets significantly tougher from here with in-form former champion Marketa Vondrousova up next on Wednesday.
