Emma Raducanu fought back after a set and a breakdown to claim victory on her French Open debut at senior level.
The 19-year-old Brit showed brilliant courage and determination to beat Czech teenager Linda Noskova 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-1 in a thrilling first-round clash.
Getty
Raducanu got a huge scare from 17-year-old Noskova
AFP
But showed tremendous fighting spirit to claim victory
The US Open champion broke serve twice in the opening set but was tied in a tie-break by the 17-year-old qualifier which she lost 7-4.
Raducanu was then broken in the second set but managed to fight back to take the second set 7-5 and send the match into a decider.
It was one way traffic from there as Raducanu went on to comfortably take the final set. Next up for Raducanu is Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in the second round.
It was generally a good day for the British players, with Dan Evans claiming his first Roland Garros victory on the fifth request.
The 32-year-old, a first-round loser in each of his previous four main draw appearances, beat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(3) 6-4 6-4. Evans faces Swede Mikael Ymer in the second round.
Britain’s No. 1 Cameron Norrie, fresh off winning his maiden clay-court title in Lyon at the weekend, made short work of French wild card Manuel Guinard.
Getty
It has been a good few months for Norrie, who won at Indian Wells in October
Norrie won a tight first set and then cruised to a 7-5 6-2 6-0 win to set up a second-round encounter with Australian qualifier Jason Kubler.
However, there was disappointment for Harriet Dart and Heather Watson, who lost in their first round matches.
Dart narrowly avoided a dreaded double bagel for the second time in a grand slam, losing 6-0 6-2 to Italy’s Martina Trevisan in the first round of French Open.
The 25-year-old from London failed to win a match in a first-round loss to Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open in 2019.
Dart must have feared a repeat at 6-0 3-0, but she at least managed to get a few games on the board and can console herself with nearly £53,000 in prize money for her hour and 25 minutes of work.
Meanwhile, Watson lost 6-3 6-3 to Elsa Jacquemot of France.
