Emma Raducanu tipped for a top-10 return after running Aryna Sabalenka close
The first set alone took 74 minutes, with Raducanu saving seven set points and creating one of her own, while she led 4-1 in the second before Sabalenka recovered to set up a fourth-round clash with Elise Mertens.
Raducanu will now drop to British number three behind Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal, who is the last home woman left in singles, but that will not be the case for long if she can maintain this level.
The former US Open champion has made it her goal to close the gap to the world's best and, having lost twice heavily to Iga Swiatek in the other two grand slams this year, she can feel very differently after her performance here.
'She played such incredible tennis and she pushed me really hard to get this win,' said Sabalenka. 'I fight for every point like crazy.
'I'm super happy to see her healthy and back on track. I'm pretty sure that she will be back in the top 10 soon.'
SABALENKA SHINES ✨
The world No.1 beats Emma Raducanu 7-6(6), 6-4 in a thrilling Centre Court battle#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/CFrWZd6NBN
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 4, 2025
For the second time in just over 24 hours, a leading British hope came into the press room with eyes red from tears, but, unlike Jack Draper, Raducanu will leave Wimbledon feeling she is closer to the very top rather than further away.
'It's hard to take a loss like that,' said Raducanu, who revealed she had sought solace in a locker room KitKat.
'At the same time, I'm playing Aryna, who is number one in the world, a great champion. I have to be proud of my effort today.
'It's nice of her to say that, but I think it was pretty clear the difference. In the big moments, she was able to convert, she was able to hit some incredible shots. I just need to keep working and get back to the drawing board and improve a lot more.
'It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top. Having a match like that where I had chances in both sets, it does give me confidence.'
Unlike Draper, Raducanu is naturally at home on grass, with her exceptional ability to take the ball early, particularly on return, mitigating her lack of pure power.
She gave Sabalenka a decent run for her money in their only previous meeting, in Indian Wells last spring, and a clean return winner off a second serve in the opening game showed the Belarusian that she very much meant business.
Raducanu broke to lead 4-2 before ceding her advantage in a rush of errors – something she later blamed on problems with string tension in the indoor conditions.
A remarkable 10th game saw Sabalenka fail to take seven set points, six of them through backhand errors, and the home crowd were on their feet when Raducanu broke to lead 6-5.
But Sabalenka is a much stronger mental competitor these days and she played a classy game to break back before saving a set point in the tie-break with the coolest of drop shots.
Raducanu dealt with the disappointment of losing the set extremely well and hit a purple patch to move into a 4-1 lead.
She played her best tennis of the match to create a chance for the double break but just missed a forehand long, giving Sabalenka the chink of light she needed to power through to the next round.
'I don't think I could have made different choices, I think I should have just executed better,' added Raducanu, who will now turn her attention to the North American hard court swing.
'I'll probably find it tough to sleep tonight, or I'll be so exhausted and crash, I don't know. It's going to take me a few days to process that. But at the same time it really motivates me.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
40 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Holly McGill on her early breakthrough and her World Champs debut
The Edinburgh native, who turned 20 just a few weeks ago, made her GB senior debut at last year's European Championships and so she began this season with the explicit aim of retaining her place in the GB team. Given the current strength of British Swimming, this is no mean feat but McGill has proved her mental fortitude is as impressive as her talent, with her performance at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in April - she won silver in the 200m backstroke and bronze in the 100m backstroke - enough to ensure selection for this year's World Aquatics Championships, which begin in Singapore on Friday. While her selection came as little surprise to many observers, McGill admits she was pleasantly surprised with how she handled her first ultra high-pressure British Championships. 'At the start of this season, I was well aware that I could swim very well at the British Champs and still not make it into the team for the Worlds - nothing was guaranteed because the 200m backstroke field is so tough,' she says. 'You never know quite how you're going to react when you're in that high pressure environment. 'Last year felt different for me because making the GB team felt much more of a long shot whereas this time, I knew I could do it so it was just a case of actually performing on the day. Luckily, it worked out." Holly McGill (l) won 200m backstroke silver at this year's British Championships behind her compatriot, Katie Shanahan (r) (Image: Sam Mellish) McGill began swimming purely as a result of her desire to copy everything her elder sister did so, as a 7-year-old, McGill duly followed her sibling to Heart of Midlothian Swimming Club. This was the same year as the London Olympic Games and although McGill had a passing interest in the 2012 Olympics - she can remember watching Missy Franklin and Michael Phelps but not much else - it wasn't until a few years later that she began to ponder taking swimming seriously. 'It wasn't until I was 12 that I started having bigger goals and I remember thinking that I'd love to go to the Olympics - but I had no idea what that meant or what I would need to do to get there,' she says. 'Around that time, Keanna MacInnes, who was also at Hearts, went to the 2018 Commonwealth Games and that did make me think well, if she can do it and she's come from the same kind of background and does the same kind of training as me then why shouldn't I be able to do it too?' As McGill hit her mid-teens, she became a very big fish in the relatively small pond of Heart of Midlothian swim team but a move to Stirling University, which is the home to a sizeable chunk of the GB squad including Olympic gold medallists Duncan Scott and Kathleen Dawson, meant McGill was shunted right down the pecking order. For some, this would be disconcerting but McGill insists being surrounded by swimmers who were better, and had achieved far more than her, was an extremely welcome change. 'In my last year at Hearts, I started realising I was one of the better swimmers but then moving to Stirling really grounded me because the swimmers there have so much experience and have achieved so much so it made me realise I still had quite a way to go to really make it," she says. 'I actually think it was a really good thing for me to go to the bottom of the ladder - seeing the skills these other swimmers had was a good reminder of how many things I still have to work on. 'The likes of Duncan (Scott) and Kat (Dawson) act like normal people and they're really nice so it's not like they're sitting speaking about winning Olympic medals but it is quite eye-opening training alongside people that I've looked up to for so long.' McGill is, she hopes, on the path to emulating her Stirling teammates by becoming an Olympian, with LA 2028 the goal. First, though, McGill is looking towards her second Commonwealth Games appearance at Glasgow 2026 where she will, she hopes, make more of an impact than she did as a teenager on her Commonwealth debut three years ago. 'Ultimately the aim is to get to LA in 2028 but first, there's the Glasgow Commonwealth Games,' she says. 'In 2022, I was only 16 and I had no idea what to expect in Birmingham. I was so wide-eyed to everything and I was just there to experience it all whereas next year's Commie Games, providing I get there, I'll be trying to really compete.' Alongside McGill in the British team for next week's World Championships in Singapore are her fellow Scots, Duncan Scott, who is going for his tenth World championships medal and fifth world title, Katie Shanahan, Keanna MacInnes, Lucy Hope and Evan Jones, who will be making his World Championships debut. The GB team also includes Olympic gold medallists Matt Richards, James Guy, Freya Anderson and Tom Dean.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Holly McGill on her early breakthrough and her World Champs debut
It was three years ago that McGill broke onto the international scene, making her Commonwealth Games debut at Birmingham 2022 at the tender age of 16. It's in the past twelve months, though, that she has begun to really capitalise on her potential. The Edinburgh native, who turned 20 just a few weeks ago, made her GB senior debut at last year's European Championships and so she began this season with the explicit aim of retaining her place in the GB team. Given the current strength of British Swimming, this is no mean feat but McGill has proved her mental fortitude is as impressive as her talent, with her performance at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in April - she won silver in the 200m backstroke and bronze in the 100m backstroke - enough to ensure selection for this year's World Aquatics Championships, which begin in Singapore on Friday. While her selection came as little surprise to many observers, McGill admits she was pleasantly surprised with how she handled her first ultra high-pressure British Championships. 'At the start of this season, I was well aware that I could swim very well at the British Champs and still not make it into the team for the Worlds - nothing was guaranteed because the 200m backstroke field is so tough,' she says. 'You never know quite how you're going to react when you're in that high pressure environment. 'Last year felt different for me because making the GB team felt much more of a long shot whereas this time, I knew I could do it so it was just a case of actually performing on the day. Luckily, it worked out." Holly McGill (l) won 200m backstroke silver at this year's British Championships behind her compatriot, Katie Shanahan (r) (Image: Sam Mellish) McGill began swimming purely as a result of her desire to copy everything her elder sister did so, as a 7-year-old, McGill duly followed her sibling to Heart of Midlothian Swimming Club. This was the same year as the London Olympic Games and although McGill had a passing interest in the 2012 Olympics - she can remember watching Missy Franklin and Michael Phelps but not much else - it wasn't until a few years later that she began to ponder taking swimming seriously. 'It wasn't until I was 12 that I started having bigger goals and I remember thinking that I'd love to go to the Olympics - but I had no idea what that meant or what I would need to do to get there,' she says. 'Around that time, Keanna MacInnes, who was also at Hearts, went to the 2018 Commonwealth Games and that did make me think well, if she can do it and she's come from the same kind of background and does the same kind of training as me then why shouldn't I be able to do it too?' As McGill hit her mid-teens, she became a very big fish in the relatively small pond of Heart of Midlothian swim team but a move to Stirling University, which is the home to a sizeable chunk of the GB squad including Olympic gold medallists Duncan Scott and Kathleen Dawson, meant McGill was shunted right down the pecking order. For some, this would be disconcerting but McGill insists being surrounded by swimmers who were better, and had achieved far more than her, was an extremely welcome change. 'In my last year at Hearts, I started realising I was one of the better swimmers but then moving to Stirling really grounded me because the swimmers there have so much experience and have achieved so much so it made me realise I still had quite a way to go to really make it," she says. 'I actually think it was a really good thing for me to go to the bottom of the ladder - seeing the skills these other swimmers had was a good reminder of how many things I still have to work on. 'The likes of Duncan (Scott) and Kat (Dawson) act like normal people and they're really nice so it's not like they're sitting speaking about winning Olympic medals but it is quite eye-opening training alongside people that I've looked up to for so long.' McGill is, she hopes, on the path to emulating her Stirling teammates by becoming an Olympian, with LA 2028 the goal. First, though, McGill is looking towards her second Commonwealth Games appearance at Glasgow 2026 where she will, she hopes, make more of an impact than she did as a teenager on her Commonwealth debut three years ago. 'Ultimately the aim is to get to LA in 2028 but first, there's the Glasgow Commonwealth Games,' she says. 'In 2022, I was only 16 and I had no idea what to expect in Birmingham. I was so wide-eyed to everything and I was just there to experience it all whereas next year's Commie Games, providing I get there, I'll be trying to really compete.' Alongside McGill in the British team for next week's World Championships in Singapore are her fellow Scots, Duncan Scott, who is going for his tenth World championships medal and fifth world title, Katie Shanahan, Keanna MacInnes, Lucy Hope and Evan Jones, who will be making his World Championships debut. The GB team also includes Olympic gold medallists Matt Richards, James Guy, Freya Anderson and Tom Dean.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Emma Raducanu has silenced sceptics but is missing one final ingredient
For all the hype, the love, and cherished memories of her astonishing US Open win four years ago, Emma Raducanu has been shadowed by a sneering question. Just how good is she? Within the space of three days – and without the reward of that silver she lifted so gloriously at Flushing Meadow – she has reasserted her reputation as the real deal. It will feel like scant consolation in the aftermath of defeat by Aryna Sabalenka, but this was Raducanu proving herself worthy of Centre Court billing as a great player, not merely a home favourite. The records show a third-round, straight-sets defeat that followed the form guide. Sabalenka asserted her class when it mattered. But the outcome disguises the fine margins that denied Raducanu what would have been her greatest Wimbledon scalp, the Briton going toe-to-toe with the world's best for two hours before she could no longer withstand the pounding ground strokes.
