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Emma Raducanu has reached her first final since the 2021 US Open. The British No1 beat Oleksandra Oliynykova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in a tough semi-final to take her place in Saturday’s Transylvania Open final in Cluj.
She now has a shot at winning her first tournament since her incredible success at Flushing Meadows in 2021 and announcing herself as a real force on the WTA Tour.
Two British women will compete in different WTA Tour finals on the same day for the first time, with Katie Boulter reaching the final of the Ostrava Open.
What sort of physical or mental condition Raducanu, the top seed, will be in for the final against Sorana Cirstea or Daria Snigur remains to be seen after she came through one of the toughest matches of her career. It was an attritional match for Raducanu against the Ukrainian, who adopted some frustrating tactics, including heavy use of moon balling and slices and the Briton was left physically shattered after a near three-hour battle.
“What an incredible match,” Raducanu said. “I think all props to my opponent today. She played incredible, makes it so tricky to put any ball past her. You think it’s past her, and then the ball is on your baseline or on your sideline, so it’s so difficult.
“I’m just most proud of how I competed, how I came back in the third set, how I managed the match. I honestly don’t know if I could have done it without everyone’s support.”
The world No 91 adopted her infuriating tactics especially well late in the first set after Raducanu had broken to go 5-4 up. It paid off as she broke back, but Raducanu stayed strong to claim another break in a mammoth game at 5-5 and then served out the set with relative ease.
The British player then broke in the opening game of the second set to raise hopes of a more comfortable route to victory as she opened up a 3-1 lead. But Oliynykova would just not go away and turned the set on its head with a run of five successive games to level the scores as Raducanu had no answers to her unusual style.
Raducanu showed her fighting spirit after trailing 2-1 in the decider to take back control of the match, winning 16 straight points to move close to victory. She missed three match points on Oliynykova’s serve, but finally finished the job to wrap it up.
Earlier, the British No 4, Boulter, beat American Katie Volynets 6-1, 6-3 to secure a place in the Ostrava Open final.
Boulter broke in the opening game and then the fifth to establish a 4-1 lead, before taking the set as Volynets’ serve faltered again. Volynets, the world No 96, forced an early break in the first game of the second set, but the Briton responded immediately to level at 1-1.
Boulter then went on the offensive with some power hitting across the court. Another break in game eight left her serving for the match, which she closed out after recovering from 0-40 down to hold her nerve and progress to a fifth WTA final.
English (US)