Emma Raducanu had begun 2024 ranked outside the top 300. The WTA live rankings now have her at 32. But that’s hardly her best, especially considering how she peaked at No. 10 in 2022. In fact, former British No. 1 Tim Henman believes top 30 could be a “realisitic” goal for Raducanu should she manage to work on her “physical resilience”. Raducanu, too, wants to test her limits. “I feel like I just want to see how much I can do, fulfil my potential. I’m curious about what my level can get to. I really want to play more. And I think a big part of that is just staying healthy,” she told SkySports last year. Well, guess what?

She has already played 35 matches this season and won 21 out of them. A smile lit up her face during a recent WTA interview when she heard she has won 8 of her last 11 matches and has reached her highest ranking in three years. “It sounds great when you say it like that,” she said, before opening up on her expectations for the US Open swing. “It’s been a lot of hard work, a long time struggling. I’m just really pleased to kind of pick up this form, this momentum, this confidence.”

Further on, she went on to add that she is happy to spend each day practising and improving with every match. “It takes some pressure off the result, so then that’s when the results come, it’s kind of ironic. So, I’m really pleased and I guess my goal is to keep enjoying each day and winning as many as possible and creating the streak that I was kind of talking about, but yeah, obviously ranking-wise…”

Emma Raducanu has now booked her place in the SF of the Citi Open for the very first time in her career with a hard-fought 6-4,7-5 triumph over the Greek star Maria Sakkari. And boy, were her limits tested. Temperatures soared up to 36°C, and Raducanu even had to get her blood pressure checked during the match. Wondering what she had to say about the gruelling encounter?

Emma Raducanu shares her thoughts on a hard-fought battle against the former world number 3

With a win against Maria Sakkari, Emma Raducanu has now taken the H2H record to 4-0. After losing the first game, the Brit managed to claw back to a 4-3 lead. However, Sakkari managed to level things at 4-4 following a double fault by Raducanu. However, despite a strong fight, Sakkari failed to seal the first set, and Raducanu wrapped it up at 6-4. The second set, too, saw a similar gritty performance from these two.

But Raducanu somehow managed to bring this in her favor as well. In the first match, she defeated Marta Kostyuk, and then in the second match, she outclassed the former world number one, Naomi Osaka; now she does the same with the former world number 3. Interestingly, Emma Raducanu is yet to drop a set in this tournament. What did she say after the match, though?

“It was brutal today, thanks to everybody for coming out and sitting in the heat. If you don’t have the abilities, your body will fail you, but at some point, it becomes mental. The first set was over an hour, it was mental. You have to enjoy suffering, as bad as that sounds, and leave it all out on the court until you drop,” said the Brit.

Talking about her performance in this match, she said she believes that she has been building some confidence ever since making that QF run at Miami earlier this year. “I’m really pleased today, I think Maria played a really good match, and I think these conditions suit the jumpiness of her game, and I’m really happy that I toughed it out,” said Raducanu. Despite all the setbacks featuring her constant injury concerns and lack of form in the past few years, Raducanu has shown a fair bit of resilience this season so far. She’s now eyeing her first title since her 2021 US Open triumph. Can she do it in Washington, D.C., though?