MELBOURNE, Australia — No. 8 Emma Navarro wanted to play the longest WTA-level match of her profession — 3 hours and 20 minutes — and rallied from 5-3 down within the third set to beat fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-5 within the first spherical of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
A semifinalist on the US Open final yr, Navarro was seeded within the prime eight at a significant for the primary time and was finishing a set of appearances on the middle courts on the Grand Slams along with her first look on Rod Laver Area.
So, how did she really feel after being pushed all the best way by the big-hitting Steans?
“Nice,” she mentioned, telling the gang the length of the match felt like a time warp. “Loopy match at the moment.
“I simply stored telling myself to take advantage of what I had at the moment. Perhaps it wasn’t my greatest, however she put up a extremely good battle. Actually completely happy to simply get the win.”
Their match was the primary All-American ladies’s main match to go previous 5-all in all three units because the 2005 French Open (Amy Frazier defeated Meghann Shaughnessy within the first spherical 7-5, 5-7, 7-5).
It is the longest ladies’s match of the event to date.
For Emma Raducanu, successful within the first spherical on the Australian Open was at all times going to be extra essential than how she achieved the consequence.
That was clear Tuesday when the 2021 US Open champion celebrated her 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) win over No. 26-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova out on Court docket 3, the place a scattering of British flags fluttered in a light-weight breeze on Day 3 at Melbourne Park.
In her first match since November, the 22-year-old British participant had 15 double-faults, made 30 unforced errors and gained simply 30% of factors on her second serve. However she was adequate within the large moments, with 22 winners and 9 aces, to claw her means into the second spherical.
As a result of she wasn’t taking part in competitively, the most important information about her again residence was her minor again hassle earlier this month and the very fact she refused remedy for ant bites final week — simply to be on the secure aspect by way of remedy that may run her afoul of anti-doping rules.
Alexandrova served for the primary set, which contained eight service breaks, however Raducanu broke again instantly.
Within the second set, Raducanu led 4-2 however then misplaced management of her serve once more and wanted to save lots of a set level earlier than forcing one other tiebreaker, which she dominated.
Raducanu raced to a 6-0 lead within the breaker and, with an excessive amount of of a result in fear, held her nerve to clinch her first win of 2025.
Since turning into the primary participant to win a Grand Slam title after going by means of qualifying, Raducanu hasn’t been previous the fourth spherical of a significant. She has reached the third spherical for the previous three years in Australia.
She’ll subsequent play Amanda Anisimova, who had a 6-2, 6-3 win over Maria Carle.
Ninth-seeded Daria Kasatkina was the primary by means of on Day 3, dropping the primary recreation earlier than successful the following seven straight en path to a 6-1, 6-3 win over Viktoriya Tomova.
ESPN Analysis and The Related Press contributed to this report.
