Emma Raducanu hopes Australian super fan returns to spur her on in Melbourne

Emma Raducanu is on a mission to identify a vocal super fan after taking inspiration from his support in her first-round victory at the Australian Open.

The British number one recovered from a poor start to see off lowly-ranked Thai Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4 6-1 under the lights on Margaret Court Arena, putting a disrupted build-up behind her.

Both players received plenty of support but there was no missing the Australian man who yelled his backing for ‘Raddo’ at every opportunity.

“Apparently Down Under I’ve got Raddo,” she said. “Never heard that before. Pretty original.

“Obviously I loved the support. I thought it was great on both sides. To have that on my side, really, in the big moments, it was a good spur of encouragement. I said, of course, he can come to any match. I just need to try to locate him. I hope he comes back.”

Defeat to diminutive Thai debutante Sawangkaew would have been the worst grand slam result of Raducanu’s career, and her less-than-ideal preparations were evident in the initial stages.

The 23-year-old once again had a rushed build-up for the tournament because of injury, only returning to the court in late December as a result of a foot problem that had lingered since the end of last season.

Raducanu was left distinctly unimpressed by being scheduled in the first night session after a men’s match, but Alexander Bublik’s swift win over Jenson Brooksby meant she was not faced with playing into the small hours.

She also had an unfamiliar opponent in front of her in the shape of 23-year-old Sawangkaew, who is ranked a lowly 196 but began the year by winning a title on home soil in Thailand.

Raducanu’s movement was noticeably sluggish in the early stages and she may well have lost the opening set had Sawangkaew taken one of two chances to go a double break up at 1-3.

But the 28th seed found some inspiration when she needed it and worked her way into the contest, levelling at 4-4 and then breaking her opponent again to take the opening set.

Much stiffer tests await, including Russian-turned-Austrian Anastasia Potapova next and potentially Aryna Sabalenka in the third round, but there were encouraging signs in the way Raducanu found a greater weight of shot in the second set, and she clinched her first match point with an ace.

She cut a happy figure afterwards, saying of her start: “I actually didn’t feel particularly bad in terms of doing much wrong. I thought she was serving incredibly well, better than I probably expected going on to the court. Returns were dropping very deep on the line a couple of times early on.

“That puts a lot of pressure on straightaway. Maybe I made a few errors thinking I had to do a bit too much early on. I was still looking for the forehand, doing the right things.

“I was just very happy with how I kept competing. It was a really important game (at 1-3) to hold.

“After that I think it was a combination of me finding my feet, my movement, dominating a bit more, and also a few errors from her. I ended up having a pretty good run of games. I’m really proud of myself.”

The good news for Raducanu is she now has two days off to prepare for her next match, while the result ended a perfect first day for British players, with Cameron Norrie and qualifier Arthur Fery both making the second round in the men’s singles.