She plays Welsh teenage wildcard Mimi Xu in the first round but could then face former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova - who recently won the title in Berlin - in the second round with world No.1 Sabalenka awaiting in the third round.

Her recent performances against top-class players is not encouraging. The world No.38 took three games off Iga Swiatek at the French Open and Coco Gauff in Rome.

Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, has slipped down to No.11 in the rankings but she has big groundstrokes and a killer serve. Raduncau struggled, especially early on, with the depth and strength of her hitting.

One framed backhand from a thunderous Rybakina serve nearly took out the Russian-born Kazakh’s whole entourage watching on the sidelines. Their practice set finished 6-2 with Raducanu’s serve broken twice. Her back issues were not the real problem as she looked lightweight against the Grand Slam champion.

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Earlier, she had warmed up with a gentler hit with her coach Mark Petchey on Court 5 at Aorgangi Park. Raducanu’s back looked fine but the health of the 54-year-old was in more danger as he was given the run-around in the midday sun. Let’s say the quality of ball striking was higher on Court 4 between French Open winner Coco Gauff and Vondrousova.

Former British No.1 interspersed shouts of “good shot” with “sorry” but gave the smiling Raducanu lots of encouragement - and technical advice on her forehand. She might need lots of both over the next few days. Petchey was left in need of a long ice-bath.