Elina Svitolina and Emma Raducanu Photo: Dave Rowland
Fresh off defeating one big wildcard, Ukrainian number two seed Elina Svitolina faces another on Thursday night at the ASB Classic. Her 6-4 6-3 win over Caroline Wozniacki was a tougher outing than the scoreline suggests, so Svitolina is heading into her clash with the UK's Emma Raducanu in good form.
"It's going to be another tough battle," she said after beating Wozniacki.
It's the world number 25's first visit to the ASB Classic, and said she's been having fun so far at the popular tournament.
"I've really enjoyed the atmosphere. It's not every day you play in a full stadium and it's such a nice experience on a nice court."
Svitolina, whose husband Gaël Monfils will contest the men's competition next week at Stanley Street, has made the most of her downtime in Auckland by getting a new tattoo done. She designed the symbol herself and said the procedure only took a few minutes, by a tattooist oblivious to her status in the sports world.
"It's a new country for me and I heard so many great things about the tattoos here in New Zealand, so it's a good place I thought to get a tattoo. It's a Ukraine symbol but I decided to get it here. I designed it myself."
Meanwhile, Raducanu was also made to work very hard for her win over Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse, but didn't come away with it with the impressive margin of victory that Svitolina did. The 2021 US Open winner dropped a set and was pushed to 7-5 in the decider by Ruse, but still picked up her first win on tour since March of last year.
It very much feels like another tentative step in the Raducanu return narrative, following two unlucky years with injury including an ankle complaint picked up last year in Auckland. One big positive to be taken out of her first-round win was her mental fortitude, something she said made her "proud".
"It's funny because after not playing in competition for so long, you never know how those big points are going to go," she said after her win.
"Like how you deal with the 30-all situation, the breakpoint situations. So I'm really proud of the way I fought back and got myself back in the match."
However, it's fair to say it'll be an uphill battle for Raducanu tonight against Svitolina. Whoever wins will face off against Czech Marie Bouzková, who demolished American Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-1. It was a ruthless reintroduction to the tour for Anisimova, the former world number 21, after she took a break last May from all tennis citing burnout and mental fatigue.
Over on the other side, top seed Coco Gauff will be heavily favoured to advance against Brenda Fruhvirtova in today's early game, while there is a Kiwi connection straight after when Te Anau-born Swiss rep Lulu Sun plays eighth seed Vavara Gracheva.
New Zealand's doubles pairing of Erin Routliffe and Paige Hourigan play their second-round match in the late game on centre court, when they take on top seeds Bouzková and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The duo beat the Fruhvirtova sisters in their first-round match and are aiming to be the NZ women's doubles pairing at this year's Olympic Games in Paris.