Emma Raducanu will face Coco Gauff in the fourth round of the Italian Open after securing a third successive win on clay for the first time in her career. The latest victory was a bizarre affair in which Raducanu triumphed over Veronika Kudermetova 5-7, 6-0, 6-1.

Gauff, the No4 seed, will pose a huge test to Raducanu’s improving clay-court credentials. The Briton has thus far come through players below her in the rankings in Maya Joint, Jil Teichmann and Kudermetova. That trio were not mere also-rans — Joint is a rising star of the women’s game, Kudermetova a former world No9 — but Gauff marks an upgrade in quality as a grand-slam champion and French Open finalist. In their only previous encounter, at the 2023 Australian Open, Gauff won in straight sets.

The first set against Kudermetova lasted more than an hour. Raducanu fared well on first serve but won only two of 14 points on her second. After battling from 15-40 down in the eighth game to hold serve, and then go on the attack to break, she had the chance to serve for the first set. However, her aggression undid her in the next game as she ballooned a series of big strokes long, and then double-faulted to hand back a break.Raducanu had a difficult start but said she was pleased with how she reactedCLIVE MASON/GETTY IMAGES“The best thing about today I think was recovering after losing the first set and having served for it, and I think I threw in a pretty poor game at 5-4 serving, but I felt under pressure on Veronika’s returns,” Raducanu said. “She was literally red-lining everything and it was all going in and I was like, ‘I don’t know where to serve,’ and it’s not a nice feeling to have, and I’m so happy with how I didn’t let the rest of the match get away with me. I think that’s big progress compared to the matches I played in the past.”It was here that the match took on a curious look as Raducanu won the next eight games. There cannot have been many 6-0 sets that have taken 50 minutes. Kudermetova appeared to lose focus in the opening game of the second set, when two peculiar bounces confounded her.Raducanu’s first serve fell off a cliff in the second set, making less than 30 per cent of her first-serve attempts, and yet she turned around her efficiency on second-serve points. At 5-0, Kudermetova spoke to the trainer, receiving attention to her knee and gesturing towards her hip. She left the court for treatment, during which Raducanu practised her serving from inside the baseline.Kudermetova, who has won two WTA singles titles, appeared to be struggling with injuryCLIVE MASON/GETTY IMAGES“It was difficult but luckily I was 5-0 up when she took the timeout, so I kind of knew it’s to try to throw me off, but at the same time I kept my cool and luckily I had a good cushion, I served it out and then from the third set I was really on it,” Raducanu said. “It’s hard, after serving for the first set, it doesn’t just slip your mind, you do refer back to it even if you’re going into the third set. For all Kudermetova’s peccadilloes, Raducanu did not allow her opponent to manufacture a foothold in the third set, and her strokeplay, in particular her forehand, was on form in the final set. “I’m happy with the variety that I have on my shots,” she said, adding that she can still feel “a bit caught out” with her positioning after the third shot of a rally.The win puts Raducanu at a provisional No42 in the rankings, and a statement victory over Gauff would restore her to British No1 ahead of Katie Boulter.