Those who doubt Emma Raducanu’s resilience could do worse than review the final games of the tenacious 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory that moved her past Beatriz Haddad Maia and into the fourth round of Indian Wells for the first time.
Having stormed through the opening set before fatally taking her foot off the gas in the second, Raducanu fought tooth and nail down the stretch, her determination epitomised by an extraordinary rally that, in the face of some brilliant retrieving by Haddad Maia, she finally won with her fifth overhead.
There are few more ferocious competitors in the women’s game than Haddad Maia and, as an absorbing duel drew to a climax, the bellicose Brazilian world No 13 threw everything at Raducanu, firing down her heavy southpaw serve with renewed venom, crushing forehands, chasing every lost cause.
But Raducanu stuck doggedly to the task, stepping inside the baseline to pressure her opponent’s serve and reaping the reward for her boldness and sweet ball-striking in the seventh game, where Haddad Maia overcooked a forehand after Raducanu had angled away a backhand volley to set up a break point. That set the scene for further drama as the 26-year-old defiantly staved off three match points, before an emotional Raducanu finally sealed victory.
“It was a battle from both of us,” said Raducanu after notching up a third straight win at the same event for only the second time since her victory at the US Open in 2021.
“I think I did a really good job mentally of just staying – hitting through the shots and trying to commit to everything, even when it was tight, even when you’re just [hoping] the opponent misses, because at this level, they don’t.
“I think my first match point she hit the back of the line, and I was half praying the ball was going to go out, but it didn’t. Then she put the next ball away.
“I’m really pleased to have come through.”
Haddad Maia, voted the most improved player on the WTA Tour last year, when she claimed grass-court titles in Nottingham and Birmingham and defeated Iga Swiatek in Toronto, is the highest-ranked player Raducanu has beaten since her title run at Flushing Meadows. It is also only the second time the British No 1 has won three matches in a row at the same tournament since then. Having beaten Australian Open semi-finalist Magda Linette in the previous round, Raducanu has put the fitness concerns that plagued her in the build-up to the tournament well and truly behind her.
“Physically, I actually feel pretty good,” said Raducanu, who arrived in California still recovering from tonsilitis and recently suffered a recurrence of last year’s wrist injury.
“I have been managing my wrists, obviously. But that’s something that I’m continuing to manage, and I’m doing everything off the court to try and make them in the best possible place to compete. So far we are on top of it.”
She will need to remain so. In her first appearance in the last 16 of WTA 1000 event, Raducanu will face Iga Swiatek, the world No 1, who came through a tough battle agaist former champion Bianca Andreescu 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).
“It was a really tight match, and I’m really happy that I actually played such a tight match, because now I see how I can handle those situations after couple of matches that were kind of one way,” said Swiatek, who has yet to play a three-set match this season.
“I think we both played well. I’m happy that in those important moments I was the one that was more solid.”
Swiatek was also the more solid player on the one previous occasion she has faced Raducanu. That came on the clay courts of Stuttgart last year, when the Briton gave a decent account of herself in her first meeting with a top-10 player as Swiatek prevailed 6-4, 6-4. The Pole said the differing conditions and the fact that almost a year has elapsed since then meant the match would have little bearing on the outcome this time around.
“After Stuttgart, I just know how her shots feel on the racquet, because before I hadn’t even practised with her,” said Swiatek. “So it helps that way.
“But on the other hand, we are playing on a hard court, and there was clay – but actually, this surface is slower. So I think I have to really take care of the tactics.”
Ons Jabeur, the fourth seed, suffered her second defeat of the year to Marketa Vondrousova, the 79th-ranked Czech and former French Open finalist. Vondrousova, who defeated Jabeur in the second round of the Australian Open, survived a late rally from the Tunisian to win 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.