For tennis shooting star Emma Raducanu, the last sixteen duel against the Chinese Wang Xinyu is over. The 18-year-old Brit suffered an injury in the decisive third set and had to admit defeat 1: 6, 7: 6 (7: 0), 5: 7.
Emma Raducanu’s first appearance at the WTA tennis tournament in Linz was also her last. The top seeded US Open winner lost 1: 6.7: 6.5: 7 to the Chinese Wang Xinyu after an opening bye on Tuesday in the round of 16. The number one of the Upper Austria Ladies was hit on the thigh in the finish. On the other hand, the Romanian Simona Halep lived up to her role as favorite, winning 7: 5.6: 3 against Aliaksandra Sasnowitsch from Belarus.
Raducanu completely missed the start in the TipsArena, the first set was quickly lost with 1: 6. Even after that, she struggled to find her way into the game, but fought her way into the tie-break and made the set equalization. Round three was just as exciting. At 4: 5, Raducanu had to take a medical timeout due to a muscle injury in his thigh, then was able to fend off two match balls and set them to 5: 5. Wang took the serve from her opponent, as she put a volley carelessly out of bounds. That was the preliminary decision, the number 106 in the world did not miss her third chance to end the match.
“I’m super happy, we both played a great match. Even after the match points I missed, I tried to keep believing in myself and to focus on my game,” said the 20-year-old. She now faces Alison Riske in the fight for the semi-finals. The American, who was ranked eighth, eliminated Julia Grabher’s conqueror Alize Cornet with 6: 4.6: 4. For Raducanu, however, the third tournament in a row after the sensational triumph in Flushing Meadows ended anything but as desired.
Halep, who was seeded number two, worked out a quick 4-0 lead, but had to tremble after a break-in until the 7: 5 was in the bag. In the second set, the favorite couldn’t take the butter off the bread, she served it out after 1:38 hours to make it 6: 3. This means that the 30-year-old has her best result on Linz soil, as she has only been in action at the tournament in 2012, which was the last stop in the round of 16.
The second hurdle awaits the former world number one and 22-time WTA tournament winner, Italian Jasmine Paolini, who is seventh, who beat Chinese Zheng Saisai 6: 1.2: 6.6: 4. “My return has to get better and also my presence on the pitch”, Halep knew. Also represented in the quarter-finals are Danielle Collins (USA-3/6: 1.6: 2 against the Belgian Greet Minnen), Alison van Uytvanck (BEL / 6: 0.6: 3 against the Ukrainian Lesia Zurenko) and Jaqueline Cristian (ROU ), who benefited from the abandonment of the Swede Rebecca Peterson at the score of 5: 2.
