Emma Raducanu, from Great Britain, serves Marta Kostyuk, Ukraine, during a match at the Citi Open Tennis tournament on Tuesday July 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP photo / Nick Wass)
Emma Raducanu British has reached the edge of his first WTA final since he won the US Open of 2021, referring to Greece Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5 Friday at the DC Open.
And the woman she defeated four years ago in this Flushing Meadows championship match, Leylah Fernandez of Canada, could be her opponent for the crown of Washington Hard Court.
Read: Wimbledon: Emma Raducanu shows best -form overviews
Raducanu, which missed most of 2023 after surgery and ankle surgery and part of last year with a left foot injury, reached its first WTA semi-final since last year in Nottingham by sending Sakkari in sweltering conditions of 95F (35C).
“It was one of the most difficult matches in terms of conditions in which I played,” said Raducanu. “These points in the second set, I became a little wobbly, I am just happy to be able to close it and it was two sets.
“I think the humidity here too, it just gives the impression that you have just opened an oven and it remained open and your head is there. That’s what it does.”
Raducanu, in its only final at the tour level, won US Open 2021 as a qualifier for adolescents against the teenager Fernandez, who qualified for the DC Open semi-finals by fighting through leg cramps in the second set and saving an instructions to oust American Towsend 6-4, 7-4 (7/4).
The left -hander Fernandez will then face the winner of a subsequent match between the third seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and the fifth Polish seeded Magdalena Frech.
In the other semi-final on Saturday, Raducanu will face the subsequent winner between the fourth Danish seeded Clara Tauson and Anna Kalinskaya.
Raducanu, the first Grand Grand Female Champion in Great Britain since Virginia Wade in 1977 in Wimbledon, beat the quadruple Grand Chelem Naomi Osaka champion in the second round before Downing Sakkari in the quarterfinals, but not before a medical period in the second set.
“Brutal conditions. Just in the maximum heat of the day. It was incredibly difficult,” said Raducanu. “I had to call a doctor. I didn’t feel too well in the second set.
“When it is at this stage, you know that you are going to suffer and you just have to go until you can no longer physically. It could be a little dangerous, but you leave it all on the ground as anhlete.”
Raducanu rallied to win the last five games of the match.
“You come to a point where you are so tired that you no longer know what you are doing, and I think it may have helped,” said Raducanu.
“I really had to be smooth and keep the energy … You just have to be really focused.”
‘Big benchmark’
Raducanu said that the semi-finals involvement was a “great reference” after years of injury.
“I have played three big games to be here in the semi-finals, and this is the first semi-final for a long time,” she said. “I’m really proud of that and I’m just happy that all the hard work I do is starting to bear fruit.”
Fernandez gave a break with a double fault to drag Townsend 3-4 in the second set and despite the leg cramps broke the American in his eighth opportunity during the 10th match to level things at 5-5 on the way to equality.
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Fernandez won three WTA titles, Monterrey 2021 and 2022 openings and the Hong Kong 2023 Open. His last final was last year in Eastbourne.
