Emma Raducanu beats Greet Minnen in Transylvania Open first round

Emma Raducanu opened her week at the Transylvania Open with a straight-sets win over Greet Minnen on Monday, February 2, 2026, delivering a crisp performance in her first match since splitting with coach Francisco Roig. The 6–0, 6–4 result steadied her early-season narrative after a short, scrutinized coaching partnership and an uneven start to the year.

The victory also set a more practical tone for the week: points, rhythm, and confidence on an indoor hard court in Cluj-Napoca, rather than talk about who is in her coaching box.

Emma Raducanu opens with a statement win

From the first few games, Raducanu played front-foot tennis—taking the ball early, redirecting pace, and keeping rallies short enough to prevent Minnen from settling into a grinding baseline pattern. The opening set moved quickly, with Raducanu piling up early breaks and conceding little on serve.

Minnen steadied in the second set and made the scoreboard look more competitive, but Raducanu stayed disciplined: first-strike patterns behind the serve, aggressive returns on second serves, and measured shot selection on key points. The match began at 11:00 a.m. ET and ended as a tidy start to a week where Raducanu is trying to build momentum rather than chase perfection.

What the scoreline showed

A 6–0 set can flatter the winner or indict the loser, but this one mostly reflected Raducanu’s timing and clarity. She consistently won the first few shots of rallies, and when points extended, she looked comfortable absorbing pace and changing direction. Minnen, for stretches, struggled to land enough first serves and to find depth that would push Raducanu out of her preferred strike zone.

Match snapshot (ET):

Coaching change adds extra scrutiny

The match came days after Raducanu ended a brief coaching partnership with Roig, a move that renewed familiar questions about stability around her team. She has cycled through multiple coaching setups since her 2021 breakthrough, and each change tends to amplify attention—especially when it follows an early exit at a major.

For Raducanu, the immediate challenge is less about public perception and more about creating continuity in practice priorities: repeatable serve patterns, reliable forehand mechanics under speed, and decision-making that holds up across different court conditions. Winning quickly in her first outing post-split doesn’t solve the bigger coaching question, but it does quiet the noise long enough to focus on the next round.

Where it went wrong for Minnen

Minnen’s clearest problem was getting rushed. When she tried to trade pace from neutral positions, Raducanu often redirected into uncomfortable targets. When Minnen tried to loop more height for margin, Raducanu stepped in and took time away.

To flip that dynamic, Minnen needed either a higher first-serve percentage to earn free points or more variation—short angles, off-speed slices, and deeper return positions to blunt the initial pressure. She found some of that later, but the early deficit was too steep.

What comes next this week

Raducanu’s next match will be a different test: less about clean ball-striking and more about repeating it on consecutive days, with opponents now keyed into what worked for her in round one. The schedule density of an early-February indoor week can also expose physical niggles quickly, so the priority will be sharp starts and efficient service games.

Beyond this tournament, the broader storyline remains clear: Raducanu is still in the phase of turning isolated strong performances into a steady baseline. A convincing first-round win is the right kind of evidence—simple, measurable, and immediately useful—if she can back it up with another composed outing.

Sources consulted: WTA, Sofascore, The Guardian, The Telegraph