Emma Raducanu is on track to secure a vital seeding for the US Open after blowing away Maria Sakkari to reach the Citi Open semi-finals. Victory propelled Raducanu into the top 32 of the WTA’s live rankings – territory she has not been in for almost three years – and if the Brit stays there she will boost her chances of getting an easier draw in the early rounds at Flushing Meadows.
Raducanu has been on fire in Washington DC. She cast aside seventh seed Marta Kostyuk in the first round, dominated Naomi Osaka in the second and then beat Sakkari, who was celebrating her 30th birthday, in the quarter-finals.
Former US Open champion Raducanu, who is projected to return to British No.1 after the Citi Open, is now into the last four of the WTA 500 tournament. She has not made it into the semi-finals of an event of this magnitude since her solitary Grand Slam triumph four years ago.
The 22-year-old had to battle the elements to pull it off. Temperatures hit a sweltering 36 degrees Celsius on America’s east coast as Raducanu was seen by a medic who checked her vitals in the second set against Sakkari.
That didn’t knock her off-stride, however, as having been 2-5 down in the second set and 4-5 down at the point of the medical time-out, Raducanu put three more games on the board to come through a 6-4 7-5 winner.
After making it to the third round at Wimbledon, where she put on a spirited performance in defeat to top seed Aryna Sabalenka, and now powering into the semi-finals of her very next event, Raducanu is in exceptional form as the year’s fourth and final Grand Slam closes in.
But there are other matters to attend to in the meantime. Raducanu will face either Clara Tauson or Anna Kalinskaya to fight for a spot in the Citi Open final, and then comes the opportunity to rake in a boatload more ranking points at the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati Open is scheduled to start on August 13, and a high-flying Raducanu is projected to carry in the advantage of a seeding, which should increase her chances of putting together another deep run.
The youngster dropped back to British No.3 behind Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal after Wimbledon, but Boulter was beaten by Sakkari in the first round of the Citi Open and Kartal did not compete.