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Enable Cookies<\/a> The first set alone took 74 minutes, with Raducanu saving seven set points and creating one of her own, while she led 4-1 in the second before Sabalenka recovered to set up a fourth-round match with Elise Mertens<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Raducanu will now drop to British No 3 behind Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal, who is the last home woman left in singles, but that will not be the case for long if she can maintain this level.<\/p>\n “She played such incredible tennis and she pushed me really hard to get this win,” said Sabalenka. “I fight for every point like crazy.<\/p>\n “I’m super happy to see her healthy and back on track. I’m pretty sure that she will be back in the top 10 soon.<\/p>\n “What an atmosphere, my ears are still hurting. I was telling myself, just pretend they’re cheering for you, and I was having goosebumps.”<\/p>\n Raducanu had the top seed under pressure in the fifth game, bringing up three break points and taking the third when Sabalenka netted a backhand.<\/p>\n That was greeted by a huge roar from the packed stands, but Raducanu then made her first missteps serving at 4-3 to hand the advantage back amid a run of eight points in a row for Sabalenka.<\/p>\n A forehand winner played from virtually sitting down by Raducanu earned a clap from Sabalenka but too many errors had crept into the home favourite’s game and a netted forehand gave her opponent a first set point.<\/p>\n She saved that with an ace, and Sabalenka remarkably missed backhands on every one of six more opportunities before Raducanu finally held in one of Centre Court’s more memorable games.<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> It seemed impossible for it not to be a key moment, and Sabalenka had a face of thunder after watching two Raducanu passing shots fly beyond her reach.<\/p>\n Concern replaced cheers when Raducanu suffered a nasty slip in retrieving a short ball, briefly staying down clutching her left hip before gingerly getting to her feet.<\/p>\n It did not stop her creating two break points, though, and Sabalenka overhit a backhand to leave her opponent serving for the set.<\/p>\n This time Sabalenka did not let Raducanu off the hook, forcing a tie-break, where a drive volley hooked wide of an open court at 5-4 looked like it might have cost the world number one when she then netted a return to give Raducanu a first set point.<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> But Sabalenka saved it in style with a drop shot before finally taking her eighth opportunity, this time making no mistake at the net.<\/p>\n It was important for Raducanu to recover from the disappointment quickly, and she did, producing two strong holds of serve and taking advantage of a dip from Sabalenka to move 4-1 ahead in the second set.<\/p>\n Sabalenka has been far and away the best player in the world over the last year but suddenly she was struggling to live with Raducanu, who played a series of sublime points to create a chance to win a fourth game in a row only to just miss with a forehand.<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Had she taken it, a deciding set was most certainly on the cards, but Sabalenka, who is the only top-six seed left in the tournament, barged the door wide open and charged through it, reeling off five games in a row.<\/p>\n Image: Super Sonay Kartal roared into the fourth round after sweeping aside French qualifier Diane Parry.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old from Brighton is in the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career after a sizzling 6-4 6-2 victory.<\/p>\n Kartal, ranked 298 this time last year, is on the cusp of the top 50 and could even finish the tournament as British No 1.<\/p>\n “Everyone in this tournament is an unbelievable player but I respect everyone the same,” she said.<\/p>\n “I will try my best to approach the next match in the same way. I try to stay calm off court, but I am so grateful to get the win today.”<\/p>\n \n Kartal joins British greats\n <\/p>\n Sonay Kartal is the fifth British player to reach the women’s singles fourth round in Wimbledon this century after Laura Robson, Johanna Konta, Emma Raducanu and Heather Watson.<\/p>\n Kartel has been shining on Court Three this week, but now she was first up on Court One and began with a mixed bag of a service game, with back-to-back aces and a double fault before Parry broke.<\/p>\n But from 4-1 down Kartal battled back to lead 5-4 and confidently served out the opening set to love.<\/p>\n Parry’s ranking of 103 belies her talent with her progress stymied by two recent knee injuries, and she beat 12th seed Diana Shnaider to reach the third round.<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> But Kartal had the 22-year-old’s number and promptly roared a double break ahead at the start of the second set.<\/p>\n When Kartal held to love for a 4-0 lead she had won nine games in a row.<\/p>\n An ace brought up match point and when Parry’s return floated long Kartal celebrated an outstanding win in an hour and 22 minutes.<\/p>\n Image: Last British man standing <\/p>\n Image: Cameron Norrie kept the British flag flying in the men’s draw by brushing aside Italian world No 73 Mattia Bellucci to reach round four.<\/p>\n Jack Draper’s surprise second-round loss on Thursday to former finalist Marin Cilic left Norrie as the last British man standing.<\/p>\n To the delight of the Court One crowd, the 2022 semi-finalist delivered, recovering from a slow start to win 7-6 (5) 6-4 6-3.<\/p>\n “I honestly don’t really care about that too much,” Norrie, speaking on court, said of being Britain’s only remaining male hope.<\/p>\n “I was just hitting the ball, playing point for point, the atmosphere was amazing and I was so happy to be back on this court and just enjoying my tennis. Apparently I’m the last Brit standing, so I’ll take it.”<\/p>\n He will take on Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry <\/strong>next, with two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz a potential quarter-final opponent.<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> The former British No 1 was on the backfoot in the early stages against a fellow left-hander who scalped Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas early this year and came out all guns blazing.<\/p>\n Bellucci broke to love in the opening game and then fought back from 40-0 down to hold in game two, while his 16 first-set winners included an outrageous forehand around the side of the net off the Briton’s serve.<\/p>\n Norrie eventually broke to love to level at 4-4 before a stunning backhand helped settle a tense tie-break in his favour.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old failed to hold at the start of the second set but he soon broke back from 40-0 down.<\/p>\n However, Norrie regained the initiative in game seven before sealing the set with an ace and then easing through the decider to progress in two hours and 28 minutes.<\/p>\n Alcaraz tested by big-serving Struff <\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Defending champion Alcaraz looked to be cruising to a 21st consecutive match win when he breezed through the opening set against big-serving German Jan-Lennard Struff.<\/p>\n But 6ft 4in Struff strutted his stuff in the second, firing down 139mph missiles before shocking second seed Alcaraz when he clinched the crucial break for 5-3 before levelling the match.<\/p>\n However Alcaraz, who needed five sets to overcome veteran Fabio Fognini in the first round, gathered himself to win 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 25 minutes.<\/p>\n “I knew it was going to be really difficult and I had to be focused on every shot,” said the 22-year-old Spaniard. “To be honest I was suffering in every service game I did. Lots of break points down. It was stressful.”<\/p>\n Next up for the five-time Grand Slam champion is Russian 14th seed Andrey Rublev<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Four-time major winner Naomi Osaka came up short in her quest to reach round four of Wimbledon for the first time after surrendering a one-set lead against former French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova<\/strong>, going down 3-6 6-4 6-4.<\/p>\n Australian Open champion Madison Keys joined the scrapheap of seeds following a shock straight-sets defeat to veteran German Laura Siegemund<\/strong>, going down 6-3 6-3 to 37-year-old Siegemund.<\/p>\n Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, as well as the US Open in New York, live on Sky Sports in 2025 or stream with NOW<\/a> and the Sky Sports app<\/a>, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu saw her Wimbledon run come to an end in the third round despite an incredible battle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-239760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114799950468129933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Raducanu](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/skysports-aryna-sabalenka-emma-raducanu_6957439.png\"\/)
![\"Raducanu](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/skysports-aryna-sabalenka-emma-raducanu_6957440.png\"\/)
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Kartal roars into fourth round <\/p>\n![\"Sonay](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/skysports-sonay-kartal-tennis_6957157.jpg\")
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\n Sonay Kartal swept aside French qualifier Diane Parry<\/p>\n
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\n Heavyweight British boxer Anthony Joshua was present in the Royal Box on Friday, joined by former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker<\/p>\n![\"Cameron](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/skysports-cameron-norrie-tennis_6957200.jpg\")
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\n Cameron Norrie has dipped below the radar since his exploits of three years ago when he reached the semi-finals here<\/p>\n
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