V FOR VERY GOOD.EM!

Relaxed and confident, Raducanu breezes into third round

- NEIL MCLEMAN

THE good news for Emma Raducanu is that she served up a tactical masterclass on Centre Court - and won the best point of her career - to outclass former champion Marketa Vondrousova.

The bad news is her reward is a third-round tie with world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.

But the British No.1 now has a free hit in her home Grand Slam after overcoming her back issues and "pretty bad" personal news to reach the third round in style without dropping a set.

Vondrousova, 26, has suffered from injuries since her sole Grand Slam triumph here in 2023 and followed Raducanu in becoming only the third player in the Open era to lose in the first round of her title defence last year.

But the world No.73 faced Raducanu on a run of six consecutive wins against top 50 players after lifting the Berlin Open title including a victory over Sabalenka - and beating world No.30 McCartney Kessler.