The British player passed over Roland Garros in favor of an early preparation for the grass season, and it’s been paying off thus far. She was outstanding in her first match at the WTA 250 tournament in Nottingham, winning comfortably in two sets, and the result wasn’t different in her second encounter.
She was facing a very challenging player in Snigur, who plays very flat and direct, which can be hard to counter on grass. Raducanu undoubtedly had a fair share of troubles as the Brit got broken early, but she could immediately step it up.
Snigur can be quite streaky, and the good start was primarily the result of the British player missing a lot. On the other side, the Ukrainian couldn’t find her hitting later on either, as she started to make mistakes, after which Raducanu was generally able to cruise.
She won six games in a row to go from 0-2 to win the opening set 6-2, which was a really incredible run for her. Raducanu declared prior of the grass season that her winning Wimbledon is not a matter of if but when which was a strong statement to make.
She’s a great player on grass and has a style that works well on the surface, and she demonstrated it in this match. Her level was particularly strong, as the Brit was able to break early in the second set as well.
Snigur was just a bit too overwhelmed with the situation, and she wasn’t hitting all that well. Another thing that was impressive was Raducanu’s serve, as she hit many aces in the rather comfortable straight win.
The final score was 6-2, 6-2 for Raducanu who moved on to the quarter-final of the 2024 Nottingham Open, her first such run on grass in a Tour-level event.
