Emma Raducanu, the 18-year-old pearl and great hope for needy British tennis, joined the teenage rebellion at the US Open on Monday and will accompany Canadian Leylah Fernández (19 just turned 19) and Carlos Alcaraz (18) in the quarterfinals. It was the first time since Marat Safin, Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis did so in 1998 that three players aged 19 and under have reached the fourth round of the tournament. On that occasion, the two Russians did not pass from there, only the Swiss. This year, all three have advanced teenagers, who star in the great history of the tournament. Raducanu, third qualifier who goes far in the New York Grand Slam who came from giving Sara Sorribes a sovereign beating in the third round (6-0 and 6-1), overcame a 0-2 start against the American Shelby Rogers, and won by a resounding 6-2 and 6-1 in 66 minutes, proof that what happened to the Spanish was not an accident. With 14 unforced errors, he disarmed the woman who had eliminated the world's number one, Ashleigh Barty.
Raducanu is the player, of the 16 remaining in the competition, who has lost the fewest games: only 15. In the previous one, he gave up 16, but neither did he miss a single set, as in the main draw. She was one of the five players who had passed the first three matches immaculately, along with Sakkari, Sabalenka, Svitolina and who will be her next rival on Wednesday, Belinda Bencic, who got rid of the Polish Iga Swiatek (7-6 (12) and 6-3 in 2:07). The Swiss have only broken serve three times.
Pliskova and Sakkari meet in quarters
The other quarterfinal cross at the top of the women's team will measure the Czech Karolina Pliskova and the Greek Maria Sakkari, that they solved their parties in a different way. Pliskova beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in two sets 7-5, 6-4 in 1:35 in a match in which the Czech was very solid with the serve and in which she took advantage of four of the seven break balls that Pavlyuchenkova granted her.
More trouble happened to seal her pass the Greek Maria Sakkari, who had to come back to overcome Canadian Bianca Andreescu, sixth favorite and champion of the tournament in 2019, by 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6) and 6-3 in a match that lasted 3:29 and that it concluded after two in the morning in New York. In a very close match, Sakkari made good her 46 winning shots and the five break balls that she took advantage of to stand among the eight best tennis players at the US Open 2021.
Results, table and schedules.