Emma Raducanu returns to action with victory over Elise Mertens at Washington Open

Emma Raducanu made a triumphant re-visitation of activity at the Mubadala City DC Open in Washington as she crushed Belgium's Elise Mertens in three sets. The 21-year-old won the opening-round challenge against the eighth seed 6-2 3-6 6-4. Raducanu is as yet dealing with her rebound after wrist and lower leg medical procedure and turned down the encouragement to address Group GB at the Olympic Games since she would have rather not turned back to playing on mud at Roland Garros in front of the impending US Open, selecting to play in this competition all things being equal. The 2021 US Open boss had won her main past conflict with Mertens at Wimbledon recently for the deficiency of just three games and looked on course for a comparable outcome as she dominated five straight matches to move throughout the primary set. Be that as it may, Mertens retaliated in the subsequent set, eliminating the blunders and taking advantage of her main break of effectively level the match after the previous English No 1 had driven 40-0 in the 6th game. Raducanu broke right off the bat in the last set, yet couldn't capitalize on a 3-1 lead as Mertens crushed spirit and saved two break focuses to even out at 3-3. Raducanu saved five break points of her own prior to breaking once more, just for Mertens to strike back in the following game as the Briton served for the match.