Emma Raducanu races in Miami Open when Kessler is injured | tennis

For the first time, Emma Raducanu achieved another brilliant performance in her career to achieve the fourth round of the Miami Open after her opponent McCartney Kessler from the USA retired with a back injury, while Raducanu led 6: 1, 3: 0.

Two days after registration of one of the most impressive victories in her career, a dramatic three-set dispute against the world No. 8 Emma Navarro, returned to the court and performed at an excellent level until the end of the game. By reaching the 16th round in Miami, Raducanu achieved its best result on a WTA 1000 event.

In theory, this should be an important challenge against one of the fastest up -and -coming WTA players. After Kessler had spent her formative years in college, he only began her full-time professional trip in the 2023 season and has since climbed into the top 50 from outside of the top 900 and won two WTA titles in the past few months.

From the beginning, however, Raducanu refused to breathe Kessler. When both players struggle to control the baseline and hit the first strike in the rallies, Raducanu quickly resigned and returned spectacularly and robbed Kessler with her relentless depth of return and aggression.

“I think my movement is pretty good at the moment,” said Raducanu. “I think I defend better. I think I will return very well. I’m pretty satisfied with the most areas of my game. It is just something that I want to try to further improve.”

Her continued improvements behind her serve were even more remarkable. While she has had to struggle with her serve in the past few months, Raducanu has entered her first game with three consecutive aspects. When she kept setting, Raducanu hit the ball cleanly from both wings when she rolled through the match.

When victory for Raducanu became increasingly more likely, Kessler demanded the coach 6: 1 and 3: 0 down. After a short conversation, the match was over.

On the eve of this impressive run, Raducanu decided to end her process training period with the experienced Slovak Vladimir Plattenik. This week she was encouraged by a large number of well -known faces this week, including the former player and girlfriend of the Jane O’Donoghue family, who compared them to a big sister, the LTA trainer Colin Beecher and Mark Petchy.

Regardless of the people this week, Raducanu has more similar to a former top -10 player than in a long time.

When she thought about another strong performance, she attributed a relaxed approach for her services this week. “I think it is another approach this week. Five minutes before the match, I played spike ball with the team. It helps me to relax. When I play my best tennis, I really express my personality and me. I would say I am a bit free spirit. I don’t like any restrictions or I think what to do if I am really authentic when I play my best.”

Iga Swiadek continued to build dynamics and self-confidence when she reached the fourth round with a hard-fought 7-6 (2), 6: 1 victory against Belgium’s Elise Mertens, the 27th seed.

During an extremely tight opening set, Mertens demonstrated her intelligence and ingenuity when she made life difficult for the second seed. In the tie, however, Swiatek got up for this occasion and then played a brilliant second set to seal the victory.

“I am glad that I kept my focus and in the first sentence I knew that my serve didn’t work perfectly, but I’m glad I was patient enough to work for it,” said the pole. “In the second set I felt much better.”

With this victory, Swiadek is the first player in history that has reached the round of 16 years since the category in 2009.

In the meantime, Alexandra Eala, a 19-year-old Wildcard ranking No. 140, was the first Filipino tennis player in the open time, who defeated an incumbent Grand Slam champion when she fell 6: 4, 6: 2 to reach the fourth round.

Novak Djokovic, the fourth seed of the men, later reached the second week with a 6: 1, 7: 6 (1) -In against Camilo Ugo Carabelli when he tries to find his feet after a rocky start into the season.