Emma Raducanu's first WTA Tour match in almost nine months was a joyous affair as the former British number one overcame Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse in three sets in the first round of the ASB Classic.
The 21-year-old - who has slipped to 301st in the world rankings - had not taken to the court since losing to Jelena Ostapenko at the Stuttgart Open in April, having undergone surgery on a painful wrist injury and ankle problem.
Raducanu was taken to the distance by world number 134 Ruse, missing two chances to serve out the match in the third set, but she dug deep to succeed 6-3 4-6 7-5 in two hours and 27 minutes.
A few double faults crept into Raducanu's game early on, but she offered Ruse little inroads on her serve and earned the first break of the match in the eighth game before seeing out a nervy final hold to 30.
However, the former US Open champion won just 50% of points behind her first serve in the second set, where Ruse stormed into a 3-0 lead, although Raducanu fought back to 2-3 before cancelling out another break for the Romanian to cut the deficit to 4-5.
While serving to stay in the set, though, Raducanu was broken for a third time by her 26-year-old opponent, whose efforts looked to be in vain as she lost her serve twice in the deciding set to hand Raducanu a 5-2 lead.
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Raducanu's road to victory would not be so straightforward, though, as Ruse broke back to 3-5 and also saved two match points on serve before miraculously drawing level, only to lose her serve in the 11th game too thanks to some exceptional baseline work from Raducanu.
The Briton squandered another chance to seal her place in round two as Ruse fought back to deuce in the 12th game, but on her fourth match point, Raducanu witnessed the world number 134 send a cross-court forehand into the net to mark her long-awaited comeback with a win.
Raducanu's reward will be a daunting second-round clash with Ukrainian second seed Elina Svitolina, who overcame Danish wildcard Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-3, and there was further success for the Brits in the Hong Kong Open.
Liam Broady - who had to come through qualifying to reach the main draw - stunned an off-colour Pedro Cachin 6-4 6-0 in just one hour and 14 minutes to set up a tie with top seed Andrey Rublev.
The tone for the match was set early on, as Broady broke Cachin's serve in the opening game and saved two break points himself before successfully serving out the first set.
While the world number 108 was made to work in the first set, he blew Cachin away with a bagel in the second, earning two breaks to love and losing just one point on his first serve.
Ben Knapton
