Emma Raducanu closes in on US Open seeding with win over Maria Sakkari

Times

4 days ago

Emma Raducanu put herself in position for a provisional US Open seeding by reaching the semi-finals of the Mubadala Citi DC Open for the first time. The 22-year-old maintained her record of having never lost a set against Maria Sakkari and rose to No32 in the live rankings, with further gains available.
Two more victories this week would represent Raducanu's first title since the 2021 US Open and could help her rise as high as No26 in the world. With a pair of WTA 1000 tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati before Flushing Meadows, too — events in which Raducanu has no ranking points to defend — she has scope for additional reward before the cut-off date for seedings. It would be Raducanu's first time inside the top 32 at a grand-slam event since the 2022 US Open, when she was trying to defend her title.
There were fears that Raducanu was struggling in 'brutal' 35C heat towards the end of the 6-4, 7-5 win over Sakkari. At 5-4 down in the second set, she called for medical attention. It was reminiscent of Raducanu's breakout championship at Wimbledon in 2021, two months before her US Open victory, when she retired from her fourth-round match against Ajla Tomljanovic while suffering dizziness, a sensation she also had at the Miami Open this year. 'I felt a little bit wobbly at the back end of the second set,' Raducanu said on court.
However, having broken Sakkari shortly before the delay to recover from 5-2 down, the Briton was reborn thereafter and raced ahead in the second set.
'It's been building since Miami,' Raducanu said. 'I've been doing a lot of good work and little by little as you get a few results, you build some confidence, it helps, but also the amount of work I'm doing behind the scenes, just to have that in the locker and banked, you know you've done it. It takes a little bit of pressure off the results.
'I'm really pleased today. Maria played an incredible match and I think these conditions really suit her with the jumpiness and liveliness of her game. I'm just very happy to have toughed it out.
'For sure it's physical because if you don't have the abilities, then your body will fail you. But I think at a certain point it then becomes mental. I knew from the first, second game, it was such a long match, the first set was over an hour and it is mental and you just have to enjoy suffering — as bad as that sounds, you just know you have to leave it all out on the court until you probably drop.'
Sakkari was the world No18 when she lost to Raducanu in the semi-finals of the 2021 US Open. After that, the Greek was a fixture inside the top ten for three years until the end of last season, when a shoulder injury hindered her. Raducanu had won all three matches between the pair without dropping a set, even though Sakkari was the higher-ranked participant on every occasion. Sakkari had seen off Katie Boulter and Emma Navarro in Washington in a sign of returning form.
Straight-sets wins over Marta Kostyuk and Naomi Osaka painted a picture of serenity for Raducanu, but again this was a test of stamina. The opening set against Kostyuk lasted 71 minutes, and against Sakkari it was 63 minutes. The second set also ticked past an hour. All this while winning two doubles matches alongside Elena Rybakina, with a semi-final scheduled in the hours after her match against Sakkari.
This is a sequence of results to celebrate for Raducanu, who in the past four years has faced accusations of frailty and an inability to stay the course. She may not yet have figured how to defeat an opponent of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek's calibre, but she is at home against those in the echelon below. She has achieved this run in Washington despite having only Alexis Canter, her hitting partner, in her corner amid continuing uncertainty over her long-term coaching ticket.
Double faults were again a problem, but the manner in which Raducanu fought from 5-2 down in the second set to limit her time on court is a huge positive for her confidence and fitness as she looks for a second title in her career.