Despite the litany of injuries she has suffered this season, Emma Raducanu has occasionally shown signs of a capacity for physical endurance that suggests she is a good deal less fragile than might be supposed.
In February, Raducanu lasted three hours and 36 minutes against Daria Saville in Guadalajara before she succumbed to a hip problem, and in the torrid heat of Washington she once again demonstrated her ability to duke it out over the long haul as she sweated and slugged her way past Camila Osorio to reach the Citi Open quarter-finals.
Raducanu, the second seed, joked afterwards that she “died about three times” against the gritty 67th-ranked Colombian, but she ultimately defied both the gruelling conditions and the obstinacy of an opponent who simply refused to go away to prevail 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) in two hours and 50 minutes.
It was the longest straight-sets victory in the main draw of a WTA event this year, a landmark to stand alongside Raducanu’s tussle with Saville – which, despite the emphasis on the injury that ended it, remains the second longest match of the season so far. Fortified by a post-Wimbledon training block at the IMG Academy in Florida, the 19-year-old now stands within a single victory of winning three matches in a row for the first time since claiming the US Open title last September. She will face Liudmila Samsonova, the Russian world No 60, in the last eight.
“I think it’s got to be one of the most physical matches I have ever played,” said Raducanu of a contest that saw both players take a medical timeout for blisters.
“It was a pretty monumental effort to get through that. There were many moments in both sets where you want to go for the easy option of trying to finish the point early, but I’m just really pleased and proud of how I dug in when it really mattered.”
With temperatures touching 35 degrees and humidity at 51%, it was certainly a day for digging in. Get the job done first, worry about the aesthetics later – such was the order of the afternoon. Which was probably just as well, given that both women produced twice as many unforced errors – a whopping 111 between them – as winners. Raducanu nevertheless had chances to seal a more straightforward victory. She raced into an early lead and held a break point for a 5-1 first-set advantage only for Osorio to summon a pair of heavy groundstrokes at the moment of greatest need.
As the Colombian fought for every ball and showcased her impressive defensive skills, breaking back to level the set at 4-4, the baseline exchanges became increasingly drawn out and intense. A blazing backhand winner gave Osorio a point for a second consecutive break, which she converted courtesy of a Raducanu double fault, and the Briton was fortunate that Osorio twice replied in kind as she served for the set in the next game. Raducanu nonetheless proved as robust of mind as she was of body, moving ahead on a tiebreak and holding her nerve once again when the second set followed a similar pattern.
“She’s a really tricky opponent because she gets everything back and she scraps really well,” said Raducanu. “Her defence is really, really good. So you have to keep going. Also, it’s tough having to generate all the pace over and over and over again. It takes quite a bit out of you. Then, when she wants, she can go and hit it quick and flat, and you don’t really know what’s coming.”
Raducanu will know exactly what to expect against the big-hitting Samsonova, who saw off Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. With her US Open defence drawing ever closer, Raducanu will be hopeful that she can take the heat for a second successive match.