Emma Raducanu roars as the Brit fights back through an attack of double faults to reach the second round of the Australian Open.

It was rarely pretty and never comfortable, but Emma Raducanu is into the second round of the Australian Open after a creditable 7-6, 7-6 victory against 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.

The 22-year-old was attacked by jumping ants before the tournament, but here were the second serve gremlins, and the resulting allergic reaction caused him 15 double faults.

But Raducanu overall played well and with impressive on-the-fly problem-solving, aided by the occasional word from coach Nick Cavaday, won only his fourth Grand Slam match against a seeded opponent.

The British No. 2 appeared to be debuting another adjustment to her serve, this time a grip change, and her second delivery was extremely inconsistent.

The first serve was good (57 percent and nine aces), but in the first set Raducanu won only 18 percent of his points on the second serve. Double faults were the main culprit, but even as the second serve came in, Alexandrova was brutalizing it. The fact that Raducanu was still able to take the set showed how well the rest of his game was working.

Alexandrova, 30, has an all-or-nothing style and the combination of that and Raducanu's service problems made this a mismatched match.

Emma Raducanu let out a huge roar as she booked her place in the second round of the Australian Open

Raducanu committed five double faults and five aces in his first two service games; His opponent is from the Urals, but it was Raducanu playing Russian roulette.

The in-and-out serve was most likely due to an apparent change in grip: Raducanu's racquet face was much more open, which in theory allowed for more spin.

Raducanu suffered a back spasm that limited his preseason, so perhaps that injury interrupted his work on service adjustment.

Whatever the reason, the first set was a tremendous struggle. Raducanu finally stabilized, reducing the doubles at the expense of the aces.

The tiebreak came after eight breaks of serve in nine games and Raducanu held her nerve as Alexandrova made three serious errors on her normally powerful forehand.

In the second set, Raducanu frequently looked at coach Nick Cavaday in his service games and he always responded with the universal “kick” hand signal.

That's the spin that allows players to control the flight and direction of a second serve, and while Raducanu has never been a natural kick setter, he worked a little more with the ball as the match progressed and started serving more. close to your opponent's body. , denying him the space to free his arms.

The double faults resurfaced midway through the second set, with three in one game but he still managed three holds in a row.

Serving for the match, she took a 30-0 lead, but Alexandrova landed a couple of blows with her flat groundstrokes and Raducanu double-faulted on break point.

She responded with a brave hold to take us to a second tiebreaker in which she was quite brilliant, taking it 7-2.

At Raducanu there is always an element of watching a talented young player discover things on the fly and this was certainly one of those days.

He did a lot of things wrong but also a lot of things right and the most impressive thing was the fact that comfortably his best tennis came in the two tiebreaks.

In the second round, Raducanu will face another former teen star, American Amanda Anisimova.