Emma Raducanu of the United Kingdom extended her incredible run through the US Open on Monday in New York,
defeating Shelby Rogers 6-2, 6-1 to become just the third qualifier to reach the women’s quarterfinals in the renowned tournament.
Raducanu, 18, defeated Rogers, the last American woman in the competition, in just 65 minutes. Against 14 unforced mistakes, the victor had 18 winners.
Since the Open Era started in 1968, Raducanu joins Barbara Gerken (1981) and Kaia Kanepi (2017) as qualifiers who have advanced thus far.
“To have gone out there and performed means a lot,” Raducanu remarked afterward. “I knew I’d have to bring it today against Shelby Rogers since he’s a seasoned opponent.
“Playing at Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time was a touch nerve-wracking at first.” I was very proud of myself for settling down and regrouping and eventually finding a level that led me to victory.”
Rogers, who had previously beaten top-seeded Ashleigh Barty, battled mightily against Raducanu. She had 29 unforced mistakes compared to just 14 wins.
“It was a long day at work,” Rogers said. “Unfortunately, I had to disappoint tens of thousands of people.” So that’s something I’ll have to deal with.”
Raducanu will play Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, who is ranked 11th in the world. Bencic, who won gold at the recent Tokyo Olympics, defeated Pole Iga Swiatek, who was seeded seventh, 7-6 (12), 6-3.
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“I know I’m going to have to bring everything on Wednesday because Belinda is a fantastic player in excellent form,” Raducanu said.
The lengthy opening set lasted 84 minutes, with Bencic eventually ending it on her sixth set point. Swiatek missed four set points, three of which came in the tiebreaker.
After winning the first set, Bencic found the second set to be a breeze.
“It’s psychologically essential because you know how painful it is to lose a set like this,” Bencic remarked.
Swiatek recorded 31 wins to 26 unforced mistakes in his game.
Fourth-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic reached the quarterfinals of the US Open for the fourth time, beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who was ranked 14th.
Pliskova had 24 winners and 24 unforced mistakes, while Pavlyuchenkova had almost double the number of errors (34) than wins (24). (19th).
Pliskova’s next opponent will be Maria Sakkari of Greece, who beat sixth-seeded Bianca Andreescu of Canada in a late-night match. 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-7 (2). Around 2:15 a.m. ET, the three-and-a-half-hour fight came to a close.
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