Emma Raducanu’s impressive run in Washington has ended after a straights-set defeat by the Anna Kalinskaya, with the Russian’s heavy ground-strokes and metronomic accuracy proving too much for the Briton.
Emma Raducanu’s impressive run in Washington has ended after a straights-set defeat by the Anna Kalinskaya, with the Russian’s heavy ground-strokes and metronomic accuracy proving too much for the Briton.
On reaching the semi-final of the Mubadala Citi DC Open, Raducanu had enjoyed her longest run on the main tour since winning the US Open four years ago and she will be encouraged by her performances ahead of the major’s reprisal next month.
She pushed Kalinskaya hard, too, working hard to dictate points despite her opponent’s power-advantage and showing great anticipation – not to mention conditioning, given the heat – when retrieving the Russian’s especially effective forehand.
Raducanu’s serve, however, despite having improved earlier in the tournament, faltered at key moments, especially in the tightly contested first set. The relentless pressure that Kalinskaya imposed on her opponent then told in the second set and she wrapped up a deserved 6-4, 6-3 victory to secure a place in the showpiece against the Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Kalinskaya, 26, will be hoping to win the first title of a career that has been disrupted by illness and injury, but still promises much. Raducanu’s focus will turn to the Canadian Open in Montreal, the next stage in her preparation for Flushing Meadows.
12:48 AM BST
Kalinskaya 6-4, 6-3 Raducanu*
With Raducanu 30-15 behind, Alexis Canter urges her to do “dig in”, but Kalinskaya’s heavy hitting continues to smother her, putting her 40-15 ahead. She then attacks Raducanu’s serve to wrap up the game and hugely impressive victory.
12:45 AM BST
Kalinskaya* 6-4, 5-3 Raducanu
Whereas Raducanu frequently celebrates a won point with a fist-pump, and affords herself words of encouragement – or instruction – when waiting to receive serve, Kalinskaya is animated only when smiling ruefully after the occasional lost point. As if she knows that it will be of little significance.
Raducanu does at least make it to 30-all in this game, and then deuce, before Kalinskaya, for once, overhits a shots and lends the Briton a break point. Raducanu’s backhand, however, hits the top of the net and drops back in her court. Kalinskaya then holds out, ruthlessly.
12:37 AM BST
Kalinskaya 6-4, 4-3 Raducanu*
Raducanu, having taken the new balls, does little to exploit the opportunity. She commits a double fault and then hits a first serve short, a mistake that Kalinskaya duly punishes.
Alexis Canter, Raducanu’s hitting partner supporting her from the players’ box, points out a shortcoming in her serve: “You need to drive up more. You’ve not got energy in the legs.” Perhaps it helps: the Briton recovers to hold.
12:33 AM BST
Kalinskaya* 6-4, 4-2 Raducanu
Raducanu makes it as far as 30-all and then, trailing to game point, sets up deuce by rushing the net where she dispatches the volley efficiently. Kalinskaya, however, swats the ball to the open court, yet again, to restore her lead.
The quick hard courts suit Kalinskaya’s game perfectly. She commits a double fault but gets the ball to kick off the surface in the next point. The Russian then holds for an important game-win, not that it draws any display of emotion from her.
12:27 AM BST
Kalinskaya 6-4, 3-2 Raducanu*
Raducanu’s sliced backhand, for once, does not have the desired effect. Invited into the net, Kalinskaya dispatches a straightforward forehand to take a 30-lead.
She then ushers the Briton around the court to go 40-15 ahead before punishing a weak serve to break serve. Kalinskaya’s impassive demeanour lends her an almost robotic quality in this form.
12:22 AM BST
Kalinskaya* 6-4, 2-2 Raducanu
Raducanu hits a wild forehand to slip behind. Kalinskaya slips chasing a forehand in the next point but restores her lead with a hard forehand into Raducanu’s backhand.
The Russian, having apparently recovered from the momentary dip in concentration, quickly takes the next two points with a sustained display of clean ball-striking.
12:18 AM BST
Kalinskaya 6-4, 1-2 Raducanu*
Raducanu hits a better second serve, driving the ball away from Kalinskaya’s body to draw level at 15-15. Likewise in the next point, when the Russian does well just to reach Raducanu’s second serve into the deuce court.
Raducanu then seals the game with an ace. Just when it seemed the momentum of the match might have slipped from the Briton, she has recovered excellently.
12:16 AM BST
Kalinskaya* 6-4, 1-1 Raducanu
Kalinskaya has yet to win a title on tour but her career has been disrupted by illness and injury and, on the form preceding this game, that drought cannot last for much longer.
In this game, however, her concentration falters, all of a sudden, and she loses it to love, twice miss-hitting shots when she had scarcely made an error until this point of the match.
12:12 AM BST
Kalinskaya 6-4, 1-0 Raducanu*
After Raducanu’s victory in the first round, she admitted that her much improved serve was important to her win. Her success rate today, though, has been its lowest of the tournament, with Raducanu missing 36 per cent of her first serves.
That dip is perhaps most evident in this game as Kalinskaya takes it with the loss of only one point, wrapping up the break of serve with a ruthless backhand winner.
12:07 AM BST
Kalinskaya* 6-4 Raducanu
Raducanu takes the first point but can no more than block the next serve and Kalinskaya, eventually, hits another heavy forehand into the open court.
Raducanu hits a good return down the middle of the court and takes the point with another fine sliced backhand. Determined to dictate each point with the set on the line, she sets up break point in the next point with an impressively bold return.
However, having called a mini-break whilst distracted by a wasp, she can do no more than shank her return. Kalinskaya goes to deuce and then sets up set point with another almost unplayable serve: she dispatches Raducanu’s return from the net
The Russian then holds to take the point and the set. Even for this stage of the tournament, both players have performed to a high level, but the additional strength in Kalinskaya’s strokes have given her the edge. She deserves the lead, just.
11:59 PM BST
Kalinskaya 5-4 Raducanu*
Kalinskaya, now striking the ball with formidable power, takes a 30-0 lead, her first two-point advantage on Raducanu’s serve.
The Briton responds with a timely ace and then sets up Kalinskaya with a pair of devilish sliced backhands, before drawing level with a boom of a forehand.
Serving for the game, she then commits another double fault and hits a short second serve to give her opponent break point. Raducanu, however, sliding to the ball, keeps a sliced backhand superbly low over the net to recover parity.
Kalinskaya then picks up a forehand around her feet, making contact almost behind her body, to find the line. Turning to the same weapon, she then punishes two imperfect second serves from Raducanu to seal the first break of serve. A big moment.
11:50 PM BST
Kalinskaya* 4-4 Raducanu
Kalinskaya, holding the new balls, races to a 40-15 lead with three excellent serves. She then hits a double fault to give Raducanu a sniff of an opportunity, only to follow it with an ace.
The Russian is profiting from a relatively high-risk strategy on her serve, having won eight points from 11 second serves, compared to eight from 13 on her first. Can she continue that level of success as the pressure increases?
11:45 PM BST
Kalinskaya 3-4 Raducanu*
Kalinskaya draws level to 15-15 with a superb cross-court forehand, taking the ball early and leaving Raducanu stranded on the opposite side of the court. The Russian is unfortunate that a similar shot in the next point lands narrowly out.
Raducanu anticipates Kalinskaya’s heavy forehand this time, racing across court to give her the time to return it with aplomb. The Briton, as if from nowhere, then commits successive double faults – her first of the match.
Possibly the aggression in Kalinskaya’s return is telling on Raducanu but, on her second serve, she then hits perhaps her best shot of the match – another superb, forehand retrieved on the run. Raducanu, with the balls about to be changed, holds out following the second deuce.
11:37 PM BST
Kalinskaya* 3-3 Raducanu
Kalinskaya, finally, is overly cautious with a second serve, landing it short and Raducanu seizes on the chance. The next point produces possibly the longest rally of the match so far, with the Russian winning it after Raducanu miss-hits a backhand.
Kalinskaya, who might benefit from having played in cooler conditions than Raducanu on Friday, controls another exchange of heavy ground-strokes. The Russian, in that type of exchange, is playing with metronomic accuracy.
Her second serve, however, is faltering slightly, allowing Raducanu to set up two break points, neither of which she converts. Kalinsyaka generates an unplayable angle on her backhand and then holds with a better second serve.
11:30 PM BST
Kalinskaya 2-3 Raducanu*
Two almost perfectly placed serves hand Raducanu a 30-15 lead, but her second serve comes up short on the next point and Kalinskaya takes advantage.
The Briton, however, who could move to 29th in the new world rankings with victory here, recovers to seal the game with an immaculate serve. Neither woman, thus far, has shown any weakness on her serve.
11:26 PM BST
Kalinskaya* 2-2 Raducanu
Kalinskaya hits a second serve into her opponent’s body and punishes Raducanu’s subsequent, short return. The Briton draws level with a superb backhand return, only for the Russian to win the next point off another strong second serve.
Raducanu then struggles with a deep forehand and, in trying to scoop the ball from around her feet, sends a backhand to the net.
11:22 PM BST
Kalinskaya 1-2 Raducanu*
Kalinskaya is dynamic in her movement and exudes calm on court, though she perhaps lacks Raducanu’s variety. The Briton certainly has a narrow edge in the opening exchanges, racing to a 40-15 lead here.
The Briton grants Kalinskaya an opportunity with her second serve, which she takes with a deep forehand after a brief exchange from the baseline. But Raducanu then holds out with an ace.
11:19 PM BST
Kalinskaya* 1-1 Raducanu
Kalinskaya begins with a service winner and is gifted a point as Raducanu hits a backhand well wide. The Russian, however, shanks a forehand in the rally that ensues, handing Raducanu momentum and her first point against serve.
The Russian loses the next point but follows a strong serve to the net and, with the Briton have barely managed to return it, dispatches a forehand without difficulty.
11:15 PM BST
Kalinskaya 0-1 Raducanu*
Raducanu begins in style, following up a good serve with a winner into the open court. She then backs up her serve, racing to the net and dispatches Kalinskaya’s weak, attempted lob with ease.
The Briton follows up with an ace and then wraps up the game to love with scintillating forehand, which strikes the tramline before easily evading her opponent’s backhand.
11:08 PM BST
Fernandez reunion awaits Briton
A potential showpiece reunion with Leylah Fernandez awaits Raducanu in the final, with the Canadian having just defeated Elena Rybakina 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 in an enthralling semi-final.
Raducanu defeated Fernandez to win the US Open four years ago in the only previous match between the pair.
It would be a difficult task for Raducanu. In defeating the Kazakhstani Rybakina, the third seed, Fernandez was disciplined, persistent and demonstrated a superb set of ground strokes.
10:56 PM BST
Raducanu eyeing US Open seeding
Having reached the semi-final, Raducanu will be hoping to secure a seeding at Flushing Meadow next month, as Chris Bascombe wrote in his report on her victory over Sakkari.
10:52 PM BST
Washington run makes Raducanu British No 1
Raducanu is due to be confirmed as the new British No 1 regardless of tonight’s result, with the “live rankings” placing her 32nd, 11 places above Katie Boutler – officially, the current No 1.
Raducanu effectively overtook Boulter with her victory over Naomi Osaka, the four-time major winner, in the second round in Washington. It followed a similarly impressive victory over the seventh-seeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in Raducanu’s first match.
10:48 PM BST
Raducanu aiming for the final
Welcome to our live blog of Emma Raducanu’s semi-final at the Washington Open, where the Briton is facing the Russian Anna Kalinskaya for a place in Sunday’s showpiece.
This is the biggest tournament at which Raducanu has reached the last four since the 2021 US Open, the site of her famous victory as an 18-year-old qualifier.
Kalinskaya, currently 28th in the world but 11th as recently as October, should offer stern opposition on the hard courts of the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center. A quarter-finalist at this year’s Wimbledon, she scored an impressive victory in the previous round by defeating Clara Tauson, the fourth seed from Denmark, 6-3, 7-5.
Raducanu’s biggest obstacle, however, might well be the heat. She needed a medical time-out during her quarter-final victory over Maria Sakkari on Friday as temperatures exceeded 90F. That she recovered to reel off the final five games is testament to her physical conditioning.
“I’m pretty good in the heat, for the most part, but I was really struggling,” Raducanu said after her 6-4, 7-5 victory over her Greek opponent. “It was one of the toughest matches, conditions-wise, I have ever played in.
“Those points in the second set, I was getting a bit wobbly. I’m just happy I could close it out, and it was two sets.”
Category: General Sports
