Emma Raducanu 'proud' to come through 'extremely difficult' Elena-Gabriela Ruse test in Montreal Open

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Emma Raducanu continued her good form with a straight-sets win over Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the opening round of the Montreal Open. Raducanu reached the third round at Wimbledon earlier in the summer and backed that up by getting to the semi-finals of the DC Open last week. The victory in Montreal takes her run to six wins in eight matches.

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Emma Raducanu continued her recent good form with a straight-sets win over Romania's Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the Montreal Open.

The British No. 1 was made to work hard for a 6-2 6-4 win over her good friend Ruse, to book her place in the last 64.

It continued Raducanu's return to form, having reached the semi-finals of the DC Open last week, as well as a run to the third round at Wimbledon.

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The 22-year-old's win has set up a difficult clash with 32nd seed Peyton Stearns, who had a bye in the opening round.

After such an impressive performance in Washington last week, Raducanu was the favourite against the world No. 58.

Immediately though, she was forced to save five consecutive break points in the opening game, which she duly did.

The issues continued with her own serve though and, in more testing conditions, Raducanu was forced to find a way to hold her own serve for a second time.

Having survived two scares in the opening four games, the world No. 33 sensed a chance to hit back, and broke Ruse to go 3-2 up.

That double fault from Ruse proved to be a major momentum shifter, as Raducanu won six consecutive games, taking the first set 6-2 in the process.

That run of games won also went into the second set and it looked as though the match was going to be a procession.

Ruse had other ideas though, immediately breaking back to shift the course of momentum for a second time.

The battle continued and at 3-3, it looked as though the second set might be going to a tie-break, before Raducanu rallied again to break back and go 4-3 ahead.

It proved to be anything but easy for Raducanu, with that break starting a run of three breaks in a row.

That left Raducanu serving for the match at 5-4, which she did to take her recent good run to six wins in eight matches.

Raducanu said: "It is always difficult playing someone you are close to, so I am really proud of how I put that to one side and also backed a strong week in DC and performed well today, so just really happy and loved playing here for the first time.

"It is extremely difficult [playing someone you know so well], we have spent a lot of time together off court, practices, and she is a great girl, so it is not nice when you have to see her name in the draw, but I am really pleased with how I performed myself."

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