Emma Raducanu shows true colours as Brit hits back after being denied £240K payday
Reach Daily Express July 26, 2025 05:39 AM

Emma Raducanu has shown her mettle by immediately reclaiming the British No. 1 crown she lost at Wimbledon. The 22-year-old looked like she was nearing back to her best form at the All England Club.

However, top seed Aryna Sabalenka proved a challenge too hot to handle, and she succumbed to the Belarusian in straight sets in the third round. That loss denied Raducanu a guaranteed £240,000 in prize money, instead earning £152k, while it also could've been a crushing blow to her regained momentum. That's not been the case, though, as her performances at the Citi Open in Washington DC have shown. She followed up her opening-round win over Marta Kostyuk with another straight-sets victory over Naomi Osaka on Thursday, praising the four-time Grand Slam champion in a classy post-match gesture.

Her progression to the quarter-finals of the tournament means she will once again take the top spot in the British women's rankings, overtaking Katie Boulter. She'd reached the domestic summit last month to end Boulter's two-year run before falling back behind her compatriot, with Sonay Kartal also overtaking her.

Raducanu could now return to the top 40 in the world. But it's guaranteed that she'll be ahead of Boulter regardless after her opening round loss to Maria Sakkari, while Kartal hasn't been in action.

It's Sakkari who the 2021 US Open champion will face next. The Greek is yet to win a set against her in their three previous meetings.

After making it 3-0 in their head-to-head at the Dubai Duty Free Championships in February, Raducanu said: "I was really pleased with how I fought and competed against Maria, she's a top player, been as high as three in the world. I'm just really proud of my performance.

"I think in a way we play quite similar. She's really athletic. I'm not necessarily going to give all my tactics away, it's just a very difficult match every time we play, so I'm happy to have won on all these occasions in all big tournaments and very happy to get through to the next round."

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Raducanu is also going for glory in the Citi Open doubles with Elena Rybakina. They're through to the semi-finals after getting past Giuliana Olmos and Aldila Sutjiadi, with second seeds Shuai Zhang and Taylor Townsend next up.

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