It was a dream start for the British No. 1 Emma Raducanu, who came into just her fifth match of the season, as she absolutely ripped through Caroline Garcia in the first set, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and breaking for 5-1 before serving out the first set to love.
Garcia has been enjoying a resurgence of late, and she battled back admirable as the pair traded breaks at the start of the set, and the Frenchwoman came out on top of a flurry of breaks towards the end to seal the second set.
Raducanu gathered herself though and in a carbon copy of the first set, she pulled away, breaking twice for a much-needed win.
H2H & Match Fundamentals
Emma Raducanu [11] v Petra Martic H2H: First Meeting
WTA Indian Wells California, USA
Hard (O) Prize Money: $54,400
First on Stadium 1 at 11:00 (6pm GMT) Amazon Prime Video <– Sign up for trial
Tale of the Tape – Key Stats (2022 – Hard)
H2H: Emma Raducanu (WR 13) Petra Martic (WR 79)
Tournament Previous Best R2 (2021) QF (2018)
1st Serve Return Points Won % 39.3 28.6
Return Points Won % 47 36.8
Break Point Conversion % 50 38.2
Break Points Saved % 68.4 59.1
Total Points Won % 50.4 49
Raducanu has made her stats count and on paper should be able to handle Martic well, and if she plays like she did on her opening round, she ought to advance.
Playing Styles & Prediction
Martic has all the experience in the world and has enjoyed a lot of success in recent years. She will bring a lot of variation to the court and Raducanu might well have to exercise her new-found slicing skills after she had to change her style with blisters, to handle Martic’s creative style.
Raducanu will want to play front-foot tennis and will look to be aggressive and dictate so as not to give Martic a chance to work her way into points.
