Preview: Emma Raducanu vs. Peyton Stearns—prediction, form, head-to-head

Emma Raducanu and Peyton Stewart will square off for a spot in the Korea Open second round on Tuesday.

their second meeting in as many weeks.

 

A number of well-known players withdrew from the WTA 500 competition before it even got underway.

But Raducanu, who is making her first appearance since the US Open, should only find that encouraging.

Raducanu’s hopes of winning the US Open again in 2021 were dashed very early at Flushing Meadows.

after a highly criticized warm-up period during which she turned down the opportunity to qualify

for the Canadian and Cincinnati Opens.

 

In fact, despite battling back into the match in the second set, the world number 70,

who had stated prior to the competition that she felt confident in her tennis,

was destroyed in the opening round by fellow former major champion Sofia Kenin.

In her post-match press conference, Raducanu let her guard down and admitted that she wished

She had played a few more matches before aiming for Grand Slam success.

She also hinted that she had learned from her mistake of missing out on a few pre-US Open qualifying events.

Despite not even making the initial Korea Open main draw, 21-year-old Raducanu received

a golden ticket to her first competition since New York owing to the withdrawals of Iga Swiatek,

Jessica Pegula, Elena Rybakina, Karolina Pliskova, and Emma Navarro.

 

Prior to her suffering at Flushing Meadows,

The former US Open champion had garnered positive media attention.

She advanced to the Citi Open quarterfinals and Wimbledon’s fourth round.

where her opponent on Tuesday failed to stop her.

 

At the US Open one year, Raducanu’s senior, world number 48 Stearns,

avoided the Briton’s fate by defeating Lesia Tsurenko and 12th seed Daria Kasatkina

in straight sets to set up a third-round match against Donna Vekic of Croatia.

 

The American lost 5-7 4-6 to her 24th-seeded opponent in round two.

failing to repeat her shocking victory over Kasatkina. In the process,

She bid to make it to the last 16 for the second year in a row, matching her best-ever Slam result.

 

Despite the fact that her time in New York ended sooner than she had planned,

Stewarts made great strides in the 2024 season, winning her first WTA Tour championship

at the Rabat Grand Prix in May and qualifying for her first Masters quarterfinal in Canada.

 

The 22-year-old’s run to the final eight in Montreal, however,

shouldn’t be accepted at face value because she was defeated by Pegula’s superiority

in her retirement victories against Madison Keys in the second round and Victoria Azarenka in the third round.

 

China’s Yuan Yue will be awaiting the victor of this battle in the second round,

and both players are also on a collision course to face top seed Kasatkina in round three.

Should the Brits shine in Seoul, Raducanu could also find herself up against compatriot

Heather Watson in the semifinals.

Head To Head

While some commuters in London wait an age for a bus, then two come at once,

Raducanu and Stearns will be clashing racquets for the second time in the space

of two months after never previously crossing paths on the WTA Tour before 2024.

 

Indeed, the duo locked horns at the end of July in the last 16 of the Citi Open.

where Raducanu came up trumps in straight sets, shading a close first-set tie-breaker

before running away with the second. That two-set triumph is actually her most recent on the WTA Tour.

She lost a three-set thriller to Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals.

The Briton saved five of the six break points that Stearns managed to manufacture.

We say: Stearns to win in three sets

Raducanu’s straight-set victory over Stearns in Washington, DC, should not be repeated due to her conspicuous lack

of on-court activity over the past several weeks. However, the Americans had little problem unseating some

illustrious names on the WTA Tour.

 

Although Stearns’s two career top-tier finals have taken place on clay,

Her impressive runs at the US Open show that she is equally adept on hard courts.

As Raducanu returns to the drawing board, we can see the world number 48 winning in three sets.

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