Emma Raducanu showed the best of the form that has seen her wrestle back the British No1 ranking from Katie Boulter as she beat Rebecca Sramkova 6-4, 6-1 to book her spot in the Queen’s quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old earned the honour in a roundabout way – with Boulter dropping her Nottingham points a week early due to Queen’s new spot in the schedule – but at her strongest on Thursday afternoon made a compelling case for why she is back at the top two years on from losing the ranking.
But the former US Open champion is adamant that winning back the spot is not her main driver on court.
‘It’s nice, but I wouldn’t say it’s the most important thing for me,’ Raducanu said after the match. ‘I think having Katie in front, it was nice for me to have something to chase.
‘Now I’m sure she’s going to enjoy that with me. The grass season is still young, and so is the rest of the season.
‘But regardless, as I said earlier in the week, we have a healthy competition between us two. I want to see her do well; she wants to see me do well.’
Emma Raducanu booked her spot in the quarter-finals at Queen’s on Thursday afternoon
The 22-year-old was moving well as blasted her way to a five-game lead in the first set
Rebecca Sramkova was unable to harness her best tennis and was quickly overrun by the star
After her runaway win against Cristina Bucsa on Tuesday afternoon, Raducanu had spoken about her belief that at her best she plays with personality and can express herself on the court. Against Smrakova, the former US Open winner imposed herself quickly and showed exactly how dangerous she can be when fit and firing.
It took fewer than 25 minutes for Raducanu to blaze a trail through the opening five games, playing as if subject to different restrictions on time than her opponent. Raducanu and Sramkova are separated by just four places in the world rankings, but as the former dished out superb hitting on both wings, it could have been forty-four.
But serving for the set, Raducanu appeared to look too desperate for the finish line, too keen to beat the clock and secure the set faster than she had against Bucsa. Capitalising on Raducanu’s loss of focus, Sramkova only had to defend cleanly and wait for her opponent to overcook a would-be winner.
In front of an increasingly subdued crowd, disbelieving perhaps that they were watching the same player who had been toying with the Slovakian minutes earlier, Sramkova won the next three games and forced Raducanu to wrench the match back on her own serve.
‘I think I was locked in at the start,’ Raducanu added, referencing her assessment of beating Bucsa. ‘I think I gave myself a really good lead and a good cushion. I wouldn’t say it was my cleanest performance, to be honest, throughout, even in the second set, 0-40, just a couple second-serve returns I probably wouldn’t usually miss.
‘But I think I was also gaining a lot of wins from taking the ball on, so I couldn’t be too down on myself. The thing I’m most happy about is how I refocused after 5-0 to 5-4 in the first set and kind of came out in the second again.’
After the break, it appeared to be a return to regular programming as Raducanu broke Sramkova at pace, back in full control of her game and the match’s tempo.
After losing her focus towards the end of the first set, Raducanu said that she was pleased with how she had regrouped
The player has gone through the draw with a smile on her face, and a freedom of expression
Raducanu will now face either number-one seed Zheng Qinwen or USA’s McCartney Kessler
For a player who has been outspoken about continuing to manage a recurrent back issue, another remarkable aspect about Raducanu’s tournament so far has been her movement, with Sramkova’s attempts to drop shot her opponent often coming at a punishing price.
And there are other aspects to her movement that require scrutiny. As well as looking free physically on the court, Raducanu, even in the face of her first-set hiccup looks, well, free. After smiling her way through doubles with Boulter earlier in the weak, there has been a similar lightness in her singles game.
The conditions this week are more than favourable: with Nick Cavaday’s return to her coaching team alongside Mark Petchey, and the roar of an adoring home crowd, this is as gentle a start to her grass-court campaign as Raducanu could hope for. But the player is rising to the occasion, and she will be looking forward to her quarter-final with relish.
