When Emma Raducanu played Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon last month, she lost the match in two tight sets. On Monday, she faced the world No. 1 again, in the third round of the Cincinnati Open, and this time pushed her even closer, going down 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 in an “epic three-hour-and-nine-minute scuffle”, said Tumaini Carayol in The Guardian. Across the North American hard-court season, Raducanu has maintained her momentum from Wimbledon, “playing and winning consistently”. It didn’t end in victory, but Monday’s performance was, overall, “one of the most impressive” of her career.
Raducanu is undoubtedly on an upward trajectory, said Elgan Alderman in The Times. This match, played out in stifling heat, was a “world away from the straight-sets wiltings” that have marked so many of her outings against…
