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Rampaging Raducanu downs Shelby Rogers hit Q/Finals

 

British teenager Emma Raducanu continued her take-away run at the ongoing US Open as she hit the last eight in style .

Raducanu shone on the US Open’s centre stage with another thumping win over Shelby Rogers to become the youngest British player to reach the quarter-finals in New York in the Open era.

Rogers defeated world number one Ashleigh Barty on Saturday but it was a very different experience for the American here as Raducanu reeled off 11 games in a row in a 6-2 6-1 victory to book a last-eight date with Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.

Raducanu was the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 1990 to reach at least the fourth round of her first two grand slam tournaments and she is only the third qualifier to reach the quarter-finals in New York.

Rogers is ranked 43 in the world but this has been the tournament where the teenagers have shown that experience can count for little and Raducanu left another quality opponent shell-shocked.

The 18-year-old’s Wimbledon adventure ended in the fourth round in unfortunate circumstances when she struggled with breathing problems and had to retire, but she has shown with every match in New York how much she has progressed in the two months since.

Raducanu went into the match having dropped only 12 games through three matches, the fewest of any of the women left, and on the back of a sublime 6-0 6-1 victory over Sara Sorribes Tormo.

This was a very different match-up, with Rogers one of the bigger hitters on tour compared to the spin and durability of Sorribes Tormo.

Raducanu looked nervous initially in the cavernous surrounds of Arthur Ashe and Rogers had two points for a 3-0 lead.

But the British teenager dug in and soon it was Rogers who was looking a little tight, making errors from the baseline that brought her opponent back on terms.

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Watched by Virginia Wade, the last British woman to win a grand slam title and a resident of New York, Raducanu seized the momentum and ran with it, adjusting brilliantly to the pace of the Rogers’ shots and making her superior athleticism count to carry the day.

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