Emma Raducanu hopes to build on positive start to the year at Singapore Tennis Open

SINGAPORE – After reaching the third round of the Australian Open, tennis star Emma Raducanu hopes to build on a positive start to the year at the Jan 27-Feb 2 Singapore Tennis Open (STO).

The Briton, who lost to world No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the round of 32 at Melbourne Park, has been drawn to meet Spain’s 110th-ranked Cristina Bucsa in the first round of the US$275,000 (S$370,000) WTA 250 event at Kallang Tennis Hub on Jan 27.

Speaking on the sidelines of a welcome party at Hilton Orchard on Jan 26, Raducanu, who is set to rise to world No. 56 after her exploits in the year’s first Grand Slam, said: “It’s just a great week to build on after the Australian Open and I think I made a positive start to the year.

“For me right now, it’s just about getting out there on the practice court, on the match court, as much as I possibly can. Being healthy is a great privilege to me right now. At the end of last year, I had a back spasm after pre-season, which took me out for four weeks.

“And that wasn’t exactly ideal going into the start of the season, but I’m very happy with how my team and I pulled through that situation and managed to make a positive run in Melbourne.”

While the STO will be held indoors, the 22-year-old can still feel the effects of the humidity here.

She said: “It was quite lively in Melbourne, but indoor tennis is also different. So I think it’s going to be very important to be aggressive and take control of the point early on here, and I’m going to try my best to do that.

“It’s also extremely humid here in Singapore, compared to Australia, which is a lot drier. So I think acclimatising to that is challenging. But being indoors, we’re not necessarily playing outside in the heat, but you can feel certain effects on your body.”

The 2021 US Open champion is searching for her seventh full-time coach in her career after Nick Cavaday, who had worked with her for about a year, stepped away from coaching to “prioritise getting back to full health”.

Should Raducanu and world No. 16 Anna Kalinskaya win their respective matches in the first two rounds, they will meet in the quarter-finals.

Kalinskaya, 26, had pulled out of the Australian Open at the eleventh hour due to illness, before she was due to face Australia’s Kimberly Birrell in the first round.

On the STO, where the top seed will face world No. 83 Caroline Dolehide of the United States in the first round, Kalinskaya said: “I’m very excited and very impressed at how good the organisation is, and how good the facility is. There are not many tournaments indoors, but this seems (like a) very, very good start and I’m looking forward to it.”

When asked whether her relationship with men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who defeated Alexander Zverev to retain his Australian Open title on Jan 26, gives her pressure as being the tennis power couple, she said: “Not at all. I don’t think there’s pressure, it doesn’t change anything.”

In his opening address at the welcome party, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong said it was a “real privilege for Singapore” to stage the matches involving the players competing on the WTA Tour.

Running alongside the tournament is the Singapore Tennis Invitational Cup, a regional event that will see players from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia competing from Jan 28 to Feb 1.

He added: “This inaugural tournament started from a conversation I had with my sports counterparts in Asean when we were having a coffee at the sidelines of the Paris Olympics, and we said to one another, ‘Look we’re all close neighbours, we don’t have to travel very far away, why not we come together, compete in various sports, lift our standards and also through sports build stronger ties.”

Other prominent first-round draws will see Belgium’s world No. 34 Elise Mertens face America’s 85th-ranked Taylor Townsend and the tournament’s top-ranked Asian, Wang Xinyu (37th) of China, taking on Canadian Rebecca Marino (98th).

Aside from the tennis, Raducanu says she will be out to hunt for local delicacies again, having tried chilli crab when she was here in 2022.

She added: “Singapore is such an amazing place, with so many things to visit, go and eat and explore and immerse yourself in so I’m going to make sure I do that.

“(I went to) a more established restaurant in the mall here called Jumbo, which was very good. But actually my favourite is black pepper crab, I don’t like it too sweet.”