Raducanu & Norrie Claim Rome Wins As Boulter Beaten

Britain's Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie won their first-round matches astatine nan Italian Open arsenic Katie Boulter grounded to advancement successful Rome.

Raducanu, making her first quality astatine nan tourney aft a three-year absence, had to excavation heavy to triumph 7-5 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 against Australian Maya Joint.

Norrie booked his second-round spot pinch a comfortable 6-3 6-2 triumph complete Christopher O'Connell.

Meanwhile, 28-year-old Boulter mislaid 3-6 3-6 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.

Raducanu will look Russian 2nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova successful nan adjacent round, while Norrie will beryllium successful action connected Friday, 9 May against world number 11 Daniil Medvedev - a subordinate nan Brit has faced 3 times but ne'er beaten.

After taking a tight first set, Raducanu was serving for nan lucifer astatine 5-4 successful nan 2nd erstwhile a resurgent Joint fought backmost and was capable to return nan erstwhile US Open champion to a tie-break, which nan 19-year-old breezed done 7-1.

Raducanu past had to regroup for nan deciding group and raced into a 5-0 lead, only to beryllium pegged backmost again by Joint who won nan adjacent 3 games. She yet closed retired nan group connected service aft 2 hours and 44 minutes.

The 22-year-old Raducanu returned to action successful April aft taking a month-long break from competitory tennis. She made it done to nan 2nd information astatine nan Madrid Open 2 weeks agone but fell to a straight-set conclusion by Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk.

In nan men's competition, British number 3 Norrie was defeated by Serbian Dusan Lajovic successful nan qualifying information connected Tuesday, but he received a spot successful nan main tie arsenic a fortunate loser.

The 29-year-old dropped conscionable 5 games against O'Connell successful a 76-minute lucifer and told Sky Sports he channelled his anger into overcoming nan Australian pursuing his disappointing capacity against Lajovic.

"I was sharp, I didn't springiness him overmuch and I played immoderate beingness tennis," said Norrie. "I was conscionable really happy I turned that power around."

For Boulter, aft earning the first WTA clay-court triumph of her career past period successful Madrid, she struggled to repetition nan aforesaid shape successful Rome against Pavlyuchenkova, contempt nan erstwhile French Open finalist being connected a four-match losing streak.