WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly four years after being defined by a single fortnight, Emma Raducanu is taking the long view.<\/p>\n
She won the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier and what followed were a string of injuries, surgeries and an inescapable cloud of bad karma. Now she\u2019s trusting the process, taking satisfaction from a practice set well played or a successful gym session. At 22, she\u2019s becoming a more professional tennis player.<\/p>\n
Washington, D.C.:\u00a0<\/strong>Draws<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>|<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Scores<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>|\u00a0<\/strong>Order of Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI think when I watch myself now, I really like how I look on the court — not in like a narcissistic way,\u201d Raducanu said Thursday, drawing laughter from reporters. \u201cI mean in terms of energy, and I think I feel quite upbeat.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s more I look composed on the court. I think that’s a product of just the amount of work I’m doing behind the scenes that maybe people don\u2019t see. I know regardless of the result I\u2019m doing the right things, and I\u2019m banking so many good days in a row. It takes a bit of pressure off the immediate result in the matches.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps as a result, the results here at the Mubadala Citi DC Open have been stellar. On Friday, Raducanu was a quarterfinal winner, defeating Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5. To do it, she won the last five games in a draining match that required 2 hours and 10 minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you get to a point where you\u2019re so tired that you don\u2019t really know what you\u2019re doing anymore, and I think maybe that helped,\u201d Raducanu said afterwards, recalling her run of games won at the end of the match. \u201cI just really had to be smooth and conserve energy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was also thinking if this goes to three sets, I don’t know how I\u2019m going to do it. So just happy I toughed it out.\u201d<\/p>\n In her third appearance in the nation\u2019s capital, Raducanu took one step further than she did in 2022 and 2024. Her quarterfinal record improves to 3-9 and her career mark against Sakkari climbs to 4-0.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Raducanu’s first WTA Tour-level semifinal in more than a year and her first on hardcourts in three years.<\/p>\n On the tournament\u2019s hottest day so far — the temperature hovered in the middle 90s but it felt close to 100 — it was Sakkari who got out of the blocks the fastest. Thanks to two double faults by Raducanu, she forged to a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n Raducanu won the next three games, and they were level at 4-4 when Raducanu scored the decisive break with a deft, sharply angled backhand return. She served it out, converting her second set point.<\/p>\n Sakkari took control of the second set and was leading when Raducanu re-asserted herself. After holding serve, she broke Sakkari to get back on serve, converting her fourth opportunity with another sweet backhand return winner. After a brief visit from the trainers, Raducanu broke Sakkari. Two errant forehands were the culprit before Raducanu served it out.<\/p>\n With the WTA Heat Rule in effect, there likely would have been a 10-minute break if Sakkari had won the second set.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was one of the toughest matches conditions-wise I have ever played in,\u201d Raducanu said afterward. \u201cThose points in the second set, I was getting a bit wobbly. I think the humidity here, it just makes it feel completely like you have just opened an oven and it just stayed open and your head is in there.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, it was still a nice tournament for the No. 90-ranked Sakkari, who was celebrating her 30th birthday today. The former World No. 3 defeated Katie Boulter and No. 2 seed Emma Navarro to reach this stage.<\/p>\n Kalinskaya avenges Wimbledon loss to Tauson in D.C.<\/p>\n Kalinskaya awaits: <\/strong>In Saturday\u2019s semifinals, Raducanu will play Anna Kalinskaya in their first career meeting. World No. 48 Kalinskaya upset No. 4 seed Clara Tauson 6-3, 7-5 in Friday’s late quarterfinal.<\/p>\n Tauson defeated Kalinskaya at Wimbledon earlier this month, but Kalinskaya got revenge on Friday, at one of her best-performing stops on tour. Former Top 15 player Kalinskaya also made the 2019 semifinals in Washington, as well as the quarterfinals in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly four years after being defined by a single fortnight, Emma Raducanu is taking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,661,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-293437","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-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114919896892930224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293437","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=293437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}