Emma Raducanu made her first semifinal of the year but it came all but an easy way after the British tennis star came from a break down in each set to beat Maria Sakkari 6-4 7-5 in the Washington quarterfinal.
Playing against former world No. 3 Sakkari, Raducanu made a slow start and lost the opening two games. But with three breaks in the remainder of the first set, the 2021 US Open champion managed to overturn the deficit and bag the opener.
After blowing a break in the first set, Sakkari also claimed a break in the sixth game of the second set and went on to open a 5-2 lead. But just when it seemed that their match would go three sets, the British tennis star won the next five games in a row to overturn the deficit once again and complete a two-set win.
In the Washington semifinal, Raducanu will battle against either No. 4 seed Clara Tauson or Anna Kalinskaya.
What Raducanu admitted after beating Sakkari?
After getting the job done against Sakkari in two sets, the 2021 US Open winner admitted that she didn’t feel well at all after falling down by a break in the second set and that she just hoped the match wouldn’t go three sets.
“I think you get to a point where you’re so tired that you don’t really know what you’re doing anymore, and I think maybe that helped. I just really had to be smooth and conserve energy. I was also thinking if this goes to three sets, I don’t know how I’m going to do it. So just happy I toughed it out,” the 22-year-old admitted after beating Sakkari.
For Raducanu, this is her first Washington semifinal. In her first two Washington appearances that came in 2022 and 2024, the Briton concluded her run in the quarterfinal.