Emma Raducanu overcame a medical time out to battle past Wang Xinyu 7-5 4-6 6-3 in her first match at the 2025 French Open on Monday.
The British star is now set for a blockbuster clash against defending champion Iga Swiatek after the fifth seed beat Rebecca Sramkova in Paris.
The first set between world No.41 Raducanu and world No.43 Wang was close and saw both register a number of breaks as the momentum shifted.
With the score at 6-5 in Raducanu’s favour, the 22-year-old required medical treatment with what appeared to be a problem with her eye.
The 2021 US Open champion returned and held to love to take the first set 7-5, registering under half the amount of her opponent’s unforced errors.
Wang came out fighting, though, and took advantage with the first break of the second set before entering a period of dominance to lead 5-1.
Raducanu seemed low on energy but refused to give up and got one of the two breaks back, with a hold then reducing Wang’s second-set lead to 5-3.
In game nine of the second set, Raducanu earned herself two break points and sealed it with a stunning forehand winner to huge cheers on Court 8.
Wang was then left furious in game 10 when a Raducanu shot was called in by the umpire – which denied her a set point at 5-4 – but it only fired up the Chinese star as she stopped her opponent from winning four games in a row to take the second set 6-4 and force a dramatic third-set decider.
Raducanu, who headed into this year’s French Open after suffering a back injury in Strasbourg, registered a break in the first game of the third set and then held to lead 2-0 as she looked to wrap things up on the red dirt.
‘Let’s go Emma, let’s go,’ could be heard ringing around Court 8 as passionate British tennis fans looked to help Raducanu get over the line and their encouragement seemed to help as she made it a double break.
Raducanu screamed out a ‘come on’ but Wang managed to earn a break back in game four – and more twists and turns followed – as the Brit broke back instantly to lead 4-1 and edge towards victory.
She held to lead 5-1 but Wang then held and broke – saving match points in the process – to dramatically make it 5-3. It fired up Raducanu, though, who then registered her ninth break of the match to win 7-5 4-6 6-3.
Raducanu now faces an incredibly tough second-round match against Polish star Swiatek – a clay-court specialist and four-time French Open champion – who won Roland-Garros in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
World No.5 Swiatek has faced Raducanu four times on the WTA Tour to date, coming out on top every time.
They last met in the round of 32 at the Australian Open in January, which Swiatek won 6-1 6-0.
Speaking after that match, Raducanu said: ‘I think it was a match going into it I knew I had to play really well.
‘I think today, credit to Iga, she played good tennis, but I think it was a little bit of her playing well and me not playing so well. That combination is probably not good and resulted in today.
‘The scoreline was obviously quite harsh. I feel like I look back and know exactly what I need to do, and I take it as feedback.’