Emma Raducanu secured a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Thailand's Mananchaya Sawangkaew in her Australian Open first-round match. The match concluded before 11 PM local time after a late start.
This marked only Raducanu's second night match at a major tournament, the first being her 2021 US Open semi-final. The experience required her to adjust her daily routine.
Raducanu described her routine: "I had a very chill breakfast, walked around for 45 minutes, walked back, had treatment, a chat with the team, then took a nap and came in." She arrived at Melbourne Park at 5:30 PM and began her routines, practicing at 6 PM. She commented, "I'm a night owl, but not to play."
Despite a slow start with errors, Raducanu's confidence increased as the match progressed. Waiting all day for a match is a common experience for players, with fellow British player Cameron Norrie also starting his first-round match late, around 6:30 PM, after an initial 2:30 PM estimate. Norrie went on to win a five-set match against Benjamin Bonzi.
Raducanu stated she has been working on adapting to night matches: "I've been trying to train myself to be better in the night. That's half the battle for me, to be honest - how to arrange the day, when to switch on and when to switch off." She noted that a shorter preceding match helped ensure her start was not excessively late.