{"id":94157,"date":"2025-07-26T13:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T13:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/94157\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T13:16:10","slug":"emma-raducanu-beats-sakkari-to-reach-dc-open-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/94157\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu beats Sakkari to reach DC Open semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Emma Raducanu reached the semifinals at the D.C. Open<\/a> \u2014 the biggest tournament where she\u2019s made it that far since her surprising 2021 U.S. Open title<\/a> \u2014 by eliminating Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5 on Friday.<\/p>\n

On a muggy day with the temperature topping 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), Raducanu took a medical timeout while reeling off the last five games of the match after trailing 5-2 in the second set. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to say I\u2019m pretty good in the heat, for the most part, but I was really struggling today,\u201d said Raducanu, who was 18 when she became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles trophy. \u201cIt was one of the toughest matches, conditions-wise, I have ever played in. … Those points in the second set, I was getting a bit wobbly. I\u2019m just happy I could close it out, and it was two sets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also reaching the semifinals at the hard-court tournament in Washington was Leylah Fernandez, the runner-up to Raducanu at Flushing Meadows<\/a> four years ago. Fernandez moved on with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over qualifier Taylor Townsend on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Next for Fernandez is a matchup against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, the highest remaining seed in the field at No. 3. Rybakina was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over No. 5 Magdanela Frech, the player who beat Venus Williams<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Raducanu\u2019s semifinal opponent Saturday will be Anna Kalinskaya, who defeated No. 4 Clara Tauson 6-3, 7-5.<\/p>\n

In men\u2019s action, Ben Shelton made it to the D.C. Open semifinals for the second consecutive year, getting past Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (2), 6-4 in an all-American quarterfinal at night. Shelton won 90% of his first-serve points and ended the match with his ninth ace, at 146 mph.<\/p>\n

The fourth-seeded Shelton, a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist, will face No. 12 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Saturday for a berth in the final. Davidovich Fokina beat No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz on Friday night, 7-6, 3-5, 7-6 (3).<\/p>\n

The other men\u2019s semifinal will be No. 7 Alex de Minaur against Corentin Moutet. De Minaur beat No. 14 Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 6-4, and Moutet was a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 winner over 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev<\/a> in a match delayed for about an hour late in the third set because of lightning in the area.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Emma Raducanu reached the semifinals at the D.C. Open \u2014 the biggest tournament where she\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":94158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[60099,60098,62212,21485,2070,8346,17642,3099,12785,84,2766,10115,6064,723,27762,10104,4353,7843,62,12335,15678,1464,62213,67,132,68,46604,2058],"class_list":{"0":"post-94157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","9":"tag-alex-de-minaur","10":"tag-anna-kalinskaya","11":"tag-ben-shelton","12":"tag-brandon-nakashima","13":"tag-clara-tauson","14":"tag-corentin-moutet","15":"tag-daniil-medvedev","16":"tag-dc-wire","17":"tag-district-of-columbia","18":"tag-elena-rybakina","19":"tag-emma-raducanu","20":"tag-fl-state-wire","21":"tag-florida","22":"tag-frances-tiafoe","23":"tag-ga-state-wire","24":"tag-georgia","25":"tag-maria-sakkari","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-taylor-fritz","28":"tag-taylor-townsend","29":"tag-tennis","30":"tag-u-s-open-tennis-championships","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us","34":"tag-venus-williams","35":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114919727724022215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}