For a tennis player, there are few experiences more valuable than staring at the best players and seeing exactly how their levels have dropped. For Emma Raducanu, that opportunity came in front of Aryna Sabalenka, now a multiple Grand Slam champion and hungry for more.
Against Sabalenka, Raducanu displayed her strength and resilience in both sets before being guided by Sabalenka’s immense power, the weight of her shots and her intent to dominate every ball The second seed went into fourth place Indian Wells and had a hard-fought 6-3, 7-5 win.
Raducanu, who started the week defending most of her remaining points in the rankings, leaves after one of her most positive weeks of the year as she continues to find rhythm and confidence following surgery on her hands and ankles last year. However, she has yet to defeat a top-10 opponent and her current record is 0-6.
Raducanu was consistent enough in the first round against qualifier Rebecca Masalova and then in the second round against 30th seed Dayana Yastremska. She started the match before the Ukrainian player withdrew due to stomach pain, trailing 0-4 in the first set.
But facing Sabalenka was a huge step up, both in terms of the quality and intensity required to perform at such a high level, and in terms of mental fortitude. Even in Saturday’s match against Peyton Stearns, when Sabalenka faced three match points on her opponent’s serve, she still managed to win those four points her way before turning around situation.
Raducanu started well, playing two clean service games to get used to the match. But once Sabalenka found her range and rhythm, nearly every point came down to her racket. There’s a stark contrast between the weight and power of their shots. Every time Raducanu missed a serve, Sabalenka would destroy her second serve and the winning shots kept coming.
Although she trailed 2-5 and 15-40 and the set quickly opened up, Raducanu still fought hard. She found the first serve where she believed she could get the ball early and redirected some awesome power from Sabalenka, and after holding serve, she returned the favor brilliantly on Sabalenka’s subsequent serve Four break points were created in the game. Raducanu put Sabalenka under clear pressure and almost got back into the set, but the No. 2 player showed her quality and saved her best serve and groundstrokes to win The decisive score sealed the victory.
In the second set, Sabalenka quickly broke serve and led 3-2, but Raducanu was also deeply involved. She came back brilliantly, and as more mistakes started to appear on Sabalenka’s racket, Raducanu had more room to move inside the baseline, get the ball early and impose himself on Sabalenka.
In the second set, the two kept going tit-for-tat, with Raducanu looking more and more comfortable at the baseline. But Sabalenka is playing the best tennis of her life these days, imbued with such confidence and inner belief that when she needs the best, she finds it and beats La in two tense sets Dukanu.
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Elsewhere, US Open champion Coco Gauff beat Lucia Bronzetti 6-2, 7-6 (5) in her final match as a teenager to reach the fourth round and overnight, Angie Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki both became former world No. 1 players. No. 1, the Grand Slam champion and now the mother have both advanced to the fourth round, where they will meet again to rekindle old feuds.
In the men’s draw, Cameron Norrie was narrowly beaten by a resurgent Gael Monfils after just over three hours, with the Frenchman winning 6-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3 Entering the fourth round. Monfils, 37, could return to the top 50 next week as the oldest player.
