Emma Raducanu breezed previous Shelby Rogers in two units to succeed in the second spherical of the Australian Open – however it wasn’t all plain crusing as a consequence of a rogue runaway insect.
The 21-year-old acquired her 2024 Grand Slam marketing campaign off to a flyer with the 6-3, 6-2 win over her American counterpart in simply 76 minutes.
But a small hitch arrived within the second set within the type of a streetwise Australian critter, which scurried and hopped across the court docket for round a minute earlier than finally being apprehended.
Play stopped and Raducanu watched as a ball child chased the audacious intruder across the Rod Laver Arena court docket.
The crafty creature would look ahead to the lady to method it earlier than boinging away at simply the proper time to evade seize, however finally its luck ran out.
Emma Raducanu’s first-round conflict towards Shelby Rogers was briefly stopped as a consequence of a bug
A ball lady finally managed to seize the daring intruder and carry it to security off court docket
After profitable the sport of cat and mouse, the ball child swaddled the critter in a towel earlier than carrying it to security off court docket.
It is unlikely that the bug will face punitive motion for the court docket invasion regardless of taking a free front-row seat forward of paying spectators.
As for Raducanu, the draw has opened up for her considerably as she’s going to now face world quantity 94 Yafan Wang of China, who upset her opponent, quantity 22 seed Sorana Cirstea.
Playing her first Slam since this occasion final yr, Raducanu wanted to be strong towards Rogers, who has not performed since Wimbledon and made the kind of errors one may count on after such a very long time out.
Raducanu benefitted from the American’s 35 unforced errors however served effectively in direction of the tip and by no means appeared in peril.
At the tip, she arrange three match factors however solely wanted one in every of them to guide her place within the second spherical, which she reached in 2022 and 2023.
Elsewhere, fellow Brits Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie sealed secure passage via to the second spherical.
However, Andy Murray misplaced in straight units to Tomas Martin Etcheverry in what could possibly be his Wimbledon swansong.