US Open: Raducanu thrashes Rogers to reach new ground at a grand slam

By Sports Desk September 06, 2021

Emma Raducanu broke new ground on Monday as the qualifier reached the quarter-finals of the US Open in supreme style.

The 18-year-old produced one of the performances of the tournament when she defeated Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-0 6-1 on Saturday.

The Briton lost the first two games of her clash with Shelby Rogers, who impressively beat world number one Ash Barty in the previous round, but she then stormed to a 6-2 6-1 victory in her first outing on the court of Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Raducanu, who made headlines in the United Kingdom when she reached round four on her Wimbledon debut in July, will now face Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic in the first major quarter-final of her career.

Raducanu responded after a nervy start by reeling off six games in a row to take the first set in dominant fashion.

Rogers, who won just 12 points behind her first serve throughout, seemed to wilt against the onslaught as her groundstrokes became wild, her unforced error count totalling 29 by the end.

Raducanu appeared to feel the nerves towards the end of the second set but eventually closed out a famous win on her fourth match point, becoming just the third qualifier in the Open Era to reach this stage of the US Open.

"It feels absolutely amazing to play in front of all of you," she said in her on-court interview. "I'm so happy to have come through and overcome some of the nerves from the beginning.

"Belinda's a great player who's in great form, so I know I'm going to have to bring it.

"I'm just not really thinking about tennis right now. I'll leave that for tomorrow!"

Raducanu will face Bencic on Wednesday, the Swiss having beaten seventh seed Iga Swiatek in straight sets.

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