Emma Raducanu danced through to her first-ever Miami Open quarter-final with a straight-sets victory over Amanda Anisimova, winning four consecutive matches at the same tournament for the first time since the 2021 US Open. The 22-year-old raced to a first-set lead in double quick time, before eventually wrapping up the match with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph.
Above all else, it was a mature performance from Raducanu, who has been forced to battle demons on and off the court already in 2025. She’ll enter the last eight as an underdog, but for the first time in a long time, the British flag will be flying in the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event.
The Brit got off to a stunning start, taking the first four points, including two breaks of serve. But it was with the ball in hand that Raducanu continued to impress. She had put on a serving clinic against McCartney Kessler, prior to the American’s retirement, in their third-round meeting and Raducanu maintained that dominance against Anisimova, winning all eight of her opening points on serve.
An increasingly irritated Anisimova was able to put up more of a fight on her own serve and eventually got a point on the board in the fifth game when she avoided a third-successive self-inflicted dropped point. The comeback was short-lived though, as Raducanu continued to impress with the serve, waltzing to a 5-1 lead with four perfect service points. Four points later, the first set had been wrapped up.
It was a first-set performance that left the commentators spellbound, with Sky Sports pundit Annabel Croft musing: “Anisimova is absolutely rattled. Her service game… I’m not sure Emma has even lost a point has she?… Dropping the racket there, she’s absolutely fuming.” Before later adding: “She is all over the place. That sigh says it all. Fed up out here. Not enjoying this. She’s being humiliated.”
Anisimova had shared social media snaps of a nasty finger injury in the build-up to the last-16 clash and in between the first and second set, the 23-year-old called a medical time-out. It certainly appeared to help, as she pushed Raducanu in the first game against her serve, before finding her flow and taking the second game, even if she had to survive a break point.
Normal service resumed sharpish though, as Raducanu went unharmed with her next service point and tormented Anisimova when the American had the serve herself to give herself clear daylight in the second set. Raducanu’s movement in particular caught the eye – perhaps a sign her work with fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura is finally paying off.
A Raducanu dropped serve eventually arrived in the fifth game of the second set, but any hopes of an Anisimova revival were quickly squashed as the former teenage champion, operating with a renewed sense of purpose, made no mistake with the following point to break straight back. The match was wrapped up just after the hour mark during what proved to be a surprisingly simple afternoon for Raducanu.
It was fitting that the tie ended, not just on Raducanu’s serve, but also with an Anisimova unforced error. Raducanu becomes the first British victor in 10 attempts to win a WTA Tour 1000 last-16 match at a singles event, with Raducanu set to play either Marta Kostyuk or Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk