sport news MIKE DICKSON: Emma Raducanu shows steel in her first Centre Court appearance trends now
Strange to say that, prior to Monday, ex-Chelsea footballer Graeme Le Saux had spent more time on the Centre Court than Emma Raducanu.
As an All England Club member, the once international full back had been one of those chosen to break the surface in with a social mixed doubles on Saturday.
The US Open champion had to content herself with some prior visualisation out in the arena, familiarising herself with its dimensions.
Emma Raducanu wasn't overwhelmed as she won on her first Centre Court appearance
Whatever she did in the past few days it worked, because last year’s A-level student passed this latest exam with flying colours, a tricky paper having been set by Alison Van Uytvanck.
She first encountered Raducanu in November 2018, when the star of New York was a total unknown playing a small international tournament on the Wirral.
The teenager’s opponent was the Belgian’s then partner Greet Minnen . After Raducanu had won Van Uytvanck - already an established top 100 player who was practising there that week - made a point of telling the Kent teenager’s coach how impressed she was with her level.
She will know even better now how good she is, having tried everything to ruin this much-anticipated Centre Court debut.
Alison Van Uytvanck tried to make matters difficult for Raducanu but was beaten
The world number 46 mixed it up with heavy forehand drives and awkward slices that invited Raducanu to generate her own pace, but most of the time the 19 year-old had the answer.
At times the Belgian made it easy by misfiring with her serve and the five double faults, often at crucial times, were definitely helpful.
Yet this was still an excellent showing from Raducanu, who had every right to lose, given that she had managed just seven competitive games on grass coming in.
By contrast Van Uytvanck had played 14 matches on the turf across four
