Emma Raducanu has suggested that the chair umpire should have done something about Qinwen Zheng repeatedly halting their Queen’s quarter-final match. Raducanu was dumped out of the tournament on Friday as Zheng romped to a straight-sets victory, with the Brit seeing her rhythm interrupted by several unexpected delays.
The crowd grew increasingly frustrated with Zheng, and a few even booed as she stopped the match three times to tend to issues with her racket and shoes. Raducanu also appeared to be irked, flashing a perplexed look down-court at the start of the third delay, and skirting the rules by firing off a practice serve while her opponent was making footwear adjustments.
It’s tricky to say just how big an impact the stoppages had on the final scoreline, which finished 6-2 6-4 in Zheng’s favour. But it was clear during Raducanu’s post-match media duties that she was not entirely happy about the Chinese player’s conduct.
“I think the fact it happened three times on my serve, I feel like maybe something could have been done [by the umpire],” said the Brit. “But I’m not going to get into it.”
A run to the quarter-finals, which included dominant wins over Cristina Bucsa and Rebecca Sramkova, was enough to see Raducanu return to the top of the British women’s rankings ahead of Katie Boulter.
And her impressive performances will go towards a bank of grass-court momentum as she warms up for Wimbledon at the end of the month. But coming up against the top seed was a wake-up call about the gap Raducanu must close in order to harbour realistic hopes of making it into the later rounds at SW19.
Dissecting the match, the 22-year-old said: “I think returning is one of my big strengths, and I think Qinwen served really well. I didn’t see many second serves. She hit her spots really well in some big moments. Credit to her. She kind of took away one of my bigger strengths. I think I have a lot of work to do, to be honest.”
Although Raducanu can take plenty of positives from Queen’s into Wimbledon, one distinct drawback is a flare-up of the back problems which have hampered her since last month’s Internationaux de Strasbourg.
Raducanu admits it is a ‘vulnerability’ which needs to be carefully managed, and it emerged on Saturday that she has withdrawn from the upcoming Berlin Open to focus on staying in top shape.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk