sport news Top billing for Raducanu at Indian Wells as teenager set to play first game ...

sport news Top billing for Raducanu at Indian Wells as teenager set to play first game ...
sport news Top billing for Raducanu at Indian Wells as teenager set to play first game ...
Top billing for British sensation Emma Raducanu as life in lights begins in huge 16,000 stadium for first match since US Open triumph Emma Raducanu is set to play first game in since her stunning US Open triumph  She faces Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open Former British No 1 Jeremy Bates has been added to the 18-year-old's team

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All change for Emma Raducanu this week, swapping New York's skyscrapers and coastal air for palm trees and parched desert mountains.

Yet, as she prepares for her first match since winning the US Open, the biggest swap of all is free swinging anonymity for high profile celebrity and being a target for other players.

In the early hours of Saturday morning (UK time) the next phase of Raducanu's career begins, when she tackles Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, having received an initial bye.

Emma Raducanu faces Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open

Emma Raducanu faces Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open

Raducanu arrived in New York seven weeks ago not even allowed a practice court within the confines of Flushing Meadows, in common with other qualifiers.

Now she plays her first match in southern California with top billing for the night session in the huge 16,000 stadium financed by the tournament's owner, Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison.

Andy Murray also features in a Friday evening programme designed to pull in the punters to an event running for the first time since March 2019. A sign of the times is that the Kent teenager features the more heavily in local promotions.

Among the dizzying shifts in circumstances for Raducanu, this one entirely self-inflicted, is that she is moving forward without the presence of Andrew Richardson, discarded after the US Open.

Friday night will be the first test of whether this was a smart move. Contrary to some reports, sources close to Richardson have made clear that he would have been happy to carry on in the role and undertake a full travel schedule.

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