Britain’s Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie won their first-round matches at the Italian Open as Katie Boulter failed to progress in Rome.
Raducanu, making her first appearance at the tournament after a three-year absence, had to dig deep to win 7-5 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 against Australian Maya Joint.
The British number two felt the level of the match was “really high” and said: “I’m really proud of myself as well because that was a great performance, I think, on all fronts.”
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Norrie booked his second-round place with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 win over Christopher O’Connell.
Meanwhile, 28-year-old Boulter lost 3-6 3-6 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
Raducanu will face Russian second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the next round, while Norrie will be in action on Friday, 9 May against world number 11 Daniil Medvedev – a player the Brit has faced three times but never beaten.
