Raducanu blasts away fitness doubts with two wins in a day to reach Queen’s final

Emma Raducanu enjoyed a marathon day with two victories sending her through to Sunday’s final. Photograph: Paul Harding/ View image in fullscreen Emma Raducanu enjoyed a marathon day with two victories sending her through to Sunday’s final. Photograph: Paul Harding/ Raducanu blasts away fitness doubts with two wins in a day to reach Queen’s final British No 1 defeats Iva Jovic 6-2, 6-2 Raducanu to face Donna Vekic in final Emma Raducanu returned to Andy Murray Arena for her second match in five hours with lingering doubts about her physical condition after slipping on the slick grass earlier in the day and hurting her left thigh. -the-line winners to snatch an early break, that concern had dissipated. What followed was one of her very best matches as she dismantled the talented 18-year-old Iva Jovic 6-2, 6-2 in front of an ebullient home crowd to reach the final here. “It means everything to be making the final here and to be making it at home in London,” Raducanu said. “I love London. It’s where I grew up. It’s everything to me. So to be receiving the amount of support that I do here, it’s very emotional, and yeah, I’m just really proud of myself.” This is her third tour-level final, her first being the 2021 US Open and her second coming this year at the WTA 250 event in Cluj, where she lost heavily to Sorana Cirstea. With wins over world No 18 Cirstea and No 19 Jovic here in consecutive days, at a 500 Event, this is the third time she has defeated two top 20 opponents in a tournament. She is yet to drop a set. The quality of her play has been even more impressive than the wins. After another tough defeat in Melbourne in January, Raducanu said her aim was to just “hit the ball to the corners and hard”. She played this way relentlessly from start to finish, striking the ball so early, cleanly and with authority, not hesitating with her forehand and even closing down the net confidently. She has not struck with this cleanliness since the US Open nearly five years ago. “The whole week I have been playing really, really good tennis and the brand of tennis that I really want to play. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the old Emma. I think it’s the new Emma, because you take all the lessons and experience, you know, all the different ups and downs, and you take everything.