Emma Raducanu steps up bid for US Open seeding by outclassing world No27

Times

6 days ago

Emma Raducanu won her first singles match after Wimbledon, beating Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington.
After the 22-year-old's run at SW19 ended with a third-round defeat by Aryna Sabalenka, Raducanu returned to action in the doubles on Monday as she continues preparations for next month's US Open and the Billie Jean King Cup in September, and added to that with an impressive outing against the world No27 from Ukraine.
A fierce battle required a tie-break to decide the first set. Raducanu took a 4-0 lead and the advantage appeared to be hers, only for Kostyuk to win the next four points. Raducanu refocused to take it after more than 70 minutes on court.
The Ukrainian looked frustrated and was broken quickly in the second set. Despite her lofty ranking, Kostyuk has struggled for recent form, losing her previous five matches, including every outing she had on grass. Two of those defeats were by qualifiers outside the world's top 170 at grand-slam events. At 4-1 down, Kostyuk fought her way back into the contest with a superb backhand drop shot en route to holding serve and then broke back before levelling the scores. However, Raducanu secured the second set in 44 minutes to confirm her progression.
'Extremely good win,' Raducanu said. 'Playing Marta first round is extremely difficult. She's a top, top opponent and I've known her since we were under-12s playing winter, summer cups. We've always had some tough matches. I played her in Madrid earlier this year and she got the better of me. But today I'm happy with the way I fought through the first set and the second, I stayed tough when I needed to.
'It's really difficult and extremely important to keep composure and it's such a fine balance in these conditions, where it's so hot, between conserving energy in the heat but also not getting too flat — and that was a fine line I was dipping in and out of.'
Raducanu reached the quarter-finals in Washington last year, her only outing between that summer's Wimbledon and the US Open. She is due to play at the WTA 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati this summer before returning to the site of her historic grand-slam triumph of 2021.
In a partnership she has dubbed 'ER squared', Raducanu teamed up with Elena Rybakina on Monday, winning 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 11-9 against Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls, with Giuliana Olmos and Aldila Sutjiadi up next. Doubles is increasingly an area of focus for Raducanu — she joined up with fellow Briton Katie Boulter at the Queen's Club — before the Billie Jean King Cup and her new partnership with Carlos Alcaraz in the revamped US Open mixed competition.
The event at Flushing Meadows will take place in the week before the singles starts, from August 19-20, to attract the world's biggest names. Some of the pairings include Emma Navarro with Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek partnering Casper Ruud, Sabalenka alongside Grigor Dimitrov, Naomi Osaka with Nick Kyrgios, Boulter and Alex de Minaur, and Venus Williams competing alongside Reilly Opelka.
After the US Open, Raducanu will join Boulter and Sonay Kartal, her compatriots just inside the world's top 50, and Jodie Burrage in Great Britain's squad for the Billie Jean King Cup finals. Boulter lost in the Washington singles on Monday, in straight sets against Maria Sakkari.
Britain beat Germany and the Netherlands on clay in April to book their finals place in Shenzhen, China, on hard indoor courts, in September. Their quarter-final is against Japan, led by Osaka, on September 18, followed by a potential semi-final against the United States or Kazakhstan. Coco Gauff has been left out of the US squad, but they can still count on Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys and Navarro.
Meanwhile, Cameron Norrie backed up his victory over Billy Harris with an impressive 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Lorenzo Musetti, the world No7. Norrie's run to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and continued success in Washington have lifted him to a projected No38 in the world rankings, having threatened to drop out of the top 100 during the clay-court swing. He will face Brandon Nakashima, the American who turns 24 next week, in the third round.