Emma Raducanu beats Emma Navarro in hard-fought Miami Open clash despite foot injury – having recently axed her coach after 14 DAYS

Emma Raducanu said she used the upheaval of a tumultuous few days to fire herself on to one of the finest victories of her career. The 22-year-old overcame an attack of blisters to beat No8 seed Emma Navarro 7-6, 2-6, 7-6 and reach the third round of the Miami Open.

The 22-year-old’s first-round win was overshadowed by the absence from her box of new coach Vlado Platenik, and it emerged Raducanu had ended their trial after only two weeks.

On his way out the door Platenik said Raducanu was feeling stressed and under pressure; it was not long ago, remember, that she was stalked across four countries.

With all this going on it looked a tall order for the world No60 to take down such a classy opponent as Navarro but despite looking dead on her blistered feet in the second set that is exactly what she did.

‘In the third set I used a lot of emotion,’ she said. ‘I’ve gone through a lot and I just told myself: “You’ve gone through too much to kind of just like, leave it, leave it to her, you know.

‘So I was just fighting every single point like my life depended on it and that was pretty powerful.’

The 22-year-old had to have treatment for blisters going into the third set in Florida

A bandage was applied to Raducanu’s foot as she braced herself to play the final set 

It was Raducanu’s third career win against a top-10 player and first away from the green grass of home.

In a peculiar match Raducanu had to show first her quality and then her mental and physical resilience. Her serve and forehand – problem areas this year – were superb in the opening set as she came from 6-4 down in the tiebreak to nick it.

Then came a total physical collapse in the second set and treatment for blisters on both feet. When Navarro took a 2-0 lead in the deciding set all looked over. But the American took her foot off the gas and a few sloppy points allowed Raducanu to rediscover her equilibrium.

Both players failed to serve out the match at the end of the decider and in the tiebreak Raducanu’s aggressive returning did the business.

Raducanu’s coaching box has been like a game of guess who recently and a new face this time was Mark Petchey, one of Andy Murray’s early coaches with whom Raducanu has worked briefly in the past.

There was also the now-familiar figure of Jane O’Donoghue, a childhood coach of Raducanu who has moved into finance but periodically joins her team. She happened to be on holiday in Miami and so was drafted in when the Platenik trial ended.

‘She’s been around since I was 11 years old,’ said Raducanu of O’Donoghue. 

‘The support that she’s given me over the years, even when she switched careers… it’s so nice to have her here through the tough times. There have been many and now we get some reward as well.’

Beating Navarro is a major scalp for Raducanu – her first win against a top-10 player away from England, and only her third overall 

Mail Sport understands Petchey is just playing a supporting role: the search for a new, new coach continues.

That must be sorted out soon but this victory was like a shaft of light breaking through the clouds.

Raducanu will play her next match on Sunday against McCartney Kessler, after the American beat Czech Linda Noskova on Friday night.