Emma Raducanu was delighted with herself after getting through a difficult day to seal her first-ever win at the Italian Open. The world No. 49 was broken when serving for the match twice. She finally got the job done at the third time of asking, beating teenage qualifier Maya Joint 7-5 6-7(1) 6-3.

But it was a tough build-up overall for Raducanu, who was given the last slot of the day on the new SuperTennis Arena and had her match further pushed back by rain delays. After a long wait, the Brit was proud of her ability to regroup after feeling like she had a “day off”.

The British No. 2 had a lot of hurdles to overcome as she made her return to the Italian Open after a three-year absence. Raducanu finally took to the court around 8pm local time and didn’t finish her match until close to 11pm.

The former US Open champion looked to be cruising to victory when she led by a set and a break, and she was two points from victory in the second set. But Aussie world No. 78 Joint broke back to force a decider.

The teenager led Raducanu into a false sense of security again - she raced into a 5-0 lead but Joint kept her guessing and broke when the Brit served for it a second time. Finally, Raducanu got the job done after two hours and 44 minutes, and she was thrilled.

“Honestly, I think the level was really high today. I think Maya played so aggressive and anytime I dropped the ball a tiny bit short, she was just all over it,” the 22-year-old told Sky Sports.

“I'm really proud of how I came through, but the level, it was really difficult to play and to close out the match was extremely hard!

“But the crowd and the support was amazing given it’s almost 11 o’clock at night and I really felt it and tried to shimmy along past the finish line.”

Raducanu also had difficulty getting into a match mentality after spending some time in the city earlier in the day. “I found it so hard this morning, the wait and the rain and the delay,” she explained.

“I mean I tried to come to site pretty late, I actually managed to go to the Trevi Fountain but I didn’t make a wish though, the queue was too long and I didn’t have a coin!

“It was nice to kind of see the sights and then I had a nice lunch outside on a terrace somewhere on the street, it was pretty chill.

“The toughest part is trying to get psyched up for a match after you’ve basically had a day off until 6pm so that was hard in the warm-up but really proud of how I kind of came back in the match.”

Raducanu now faces 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if she asked for a slightly earlier slot in the schedule.

Their head-to-head is tied at 1-1 after two meetings earlier this year. Raducanu downed the Russian at the Australian Open in January but Alexandrova got revenge in Doha less than a month later.

Ahead of their third meeting, the British No. 2 said: “I think it completely depends as well on what time of day we play because at night it’s really heavy and with the balls you can definitely tell the difference when you have a few games in them.

“I’ve played her twice, both of them pretty tough matches and it’s 1-1 and the clay will probably be a good challenge for both of us. Haven’t really seen her play on clay but I’m just happy to come through this one and cherishing this one now.”