Emma Raducanu did something she ‘was not meant to do’ during a break in play against Qinwen Zheng on Friday. The Brit was kept waiting by her Chinese opponent in the first set of their Queen’s quarter-final, and she pushed her luck with the chair umpire by cheekily taking an opportunity to stay sharp.
With Zheng 3-2 up and threatening to widen the margin with break point on Raducanu’s serve, the Shiyan-born competitor halted the match and returned to her seat to put on a fresh pair of shoes. After standing and waiting for more than a minute, Raducanu smashed a practice serve down the court before Zheng had returned to the baseline.
Umpires are given a level of discretion over such incidents, but USTA rules state that ‘a player should take all warm-up serves before the first serve of the match’.
And BBC commentator Annabel Croft was quick to recognise that Raducanu had done something crafty. She said: “I don’t know if Raducanu is meant to hit a ball like that. She’s just practiced a serve and normally you’re not meant to do that!”
The unusual mid-match interruption was accompanied by a smattering of boos, as Queen’s spectators voiced their disapproval at Zheng holding up proceedings. The 22-year-old held up her hands in apology before composing herself, winning a long battle at deuce and then clinching every remaining game in the set to take it 6-2.
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