Emma Raducanu, from Great -Britain, serves Marta Kostyuk, from Ukraine, during a competition on the Citi Open Tennist Tournament Tuesday, July 22, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
The British Emma Raducanu reached the edge of her first WTA final since winning the 2021 US Open, so that Greek Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5 was driven out in the DC Open on Friday.
And the woman she defeated four years ago in that Flushing Meadows Championship match, Leylah Fernandez of Canada, could be her opponent for the Washington Hard Court Crown.
Read: Wimbledon: Emma Raducanu shows a glimpse of the best shape in Win
Raducanu, who missed most of 2023 after the hand and ankle operation and part of last year with a left foot injury, reached its first WTA-Halve final since last year in Nottingham by shipping Sakkari in sizzling circumstances of 95F (35c).
“It was one of the most difficult matches, in terms of circumstances I have ever played,” said Raducanu. “Those points in the second set, I became a bit wobbly. I am just happy that I could close it and they were two sets.
“I think the humidity here too, it just gives it as if you just opened an oven and it just stayed open and your head is in it. That is how it feels.”
Raducanu, in her only final at tour level, won the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualification about Teen Fernandez, which continued to the DC Open Semi-Finals by fighting bone cramps in the second set and saving a set point to fight the American Taylor Townsend 6-4, 7-6).
Left -handed Fernandez will then be confronted with the winner of a later match between third seed Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan and Polish fifth seed Magdalena Frech.
In the other semi -final of Saturday, Raducanu will be confronted with the later winner between Danish fourth seed Clara Tauson and Anna Kalinskaya.
Raducanu, the first women’s-Grand Slam Singles champion of Great Britain since Virginia Wade in Wimbledon in 1977, defeated four-time Grand SLAM champion Naomi Osaka in the second round before beating Sakkari in the quarterfinals, but not for a medical time-out in the second set.
“Brutal circumstances. Exactly in the peak heat of the day. It was incredibly difficult,” Raducanu said. “I had to call a doctor. I didn’t feel too good in the second set.
“If it is at that stage, you know that you are going to suffer and you just have to go until you can no longer physically. It can be a bit dangerous, but you just leave it completely on the field as a athlete.”
Raducanu Rally to win the last five games of the game.
“You come to a point where you are so tired that you no longer really know what you are doing, and I think that may have helped,” Raducanu said.
“I just had to be really flexible and save energy … you just have to be really focused.”
‘Big Benchmark’
Leylah Fernandez from Canada celebrates after a point against Taylor Townsend of the United States during a ladies’ snonking match on day 5 of the Mubadala Citi DC Open 2025 in William HG Fitzgerald Tennis Center on July 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. Scott Taetsch/Getty Images/AFP
Raducanu said that reaching the semi -final was a “big benchmark” after years of injury.
“I played three great matches to be here in the semi -final, and it’s the first half time in a long time,” she said. “I am really proud of that and just glad that all the hard work I have done is starting to bear fruit.”
Fernandez gave a break with a double error to train Townsend with 3-4 in the second set and despite the fact that bone cramps broke the American at the age of eighth in the 10th game to deliver things on the way to the Tie-Breaker.
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Fernandez has won three WTA titles, the 2021 and 2022 Monterrey opens and open the 2023 Hong Kong. Her most recent final was in Eastbourne last year.
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