Emma Raducanu put injury worries behind her with victory over Tamara Korpatsch at the Australian Open to set up a second-round clash with Coco Gauff.
The British number one had the left ankle she rolled in Auckland 11 days ago taped up but grew in confidence through the match and eased to a 6-3 6-2 win after an hour and 25 minutes.
While it was undoubtedly a reason to celebrate, this was also a gentle lob of a draw, with German Korpatsch, ranked one place ahead of Raducanu at 76, inexperienced at this level and a lot more comfortable on clay than hard courts.
Seventh seed Gauff, who defeated Katerina Siniakova 6-1 6-4, will offer a significantly different challenge as she looks to emulate Raducanu by winning a slam.
Although she is more than a year younger than Raducanu, Gauff has already played for three and a half years on the main tour, climbing into the top 10 and establishing the sort of solid base her next opponent is still seeking.
Staying fit will be the number one priority for Raducanu this season and even she would probably have been unsure quite how her ankle would hold up under the stresses of a match after less than a week of practice.
Given a warm welcome on a packed mid-sized arena, Raducanu initially looked hesitant on serve and stretching out wide to her backhand.
The crunch moment of the first set came in the seventh game after Raducanu had twice been pegged back from a break ahead.
The 20-year-old has taken an aggressive approach under new coach Sebastian Sachs and tried to seize the initiative on her forehand.
It paid off as she secured another break, clenching her fist in the direction of her team, and it was start of a run of six games in a row that put her in full control of the contest.
By now putting a lot more weight behind her backhand and looking confident in her game plan, Raducanu wrapped up victory when Korpatsch pushed a forehand long.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here