Emma Raducanu claimed her first top-10 win at a major as she calmly ousted ninth seed Maria Sakkari to surge through to the second week of Wimbledon. To borrow a phrase from Jurgen Klopp, this was the performance of a mentality monster.
This was a superbly mature and composed showing from Raducanu against a classy opponent. It is true that Maria Sakkari sprayed the ball at times, committing 31 unforced errors, but then she was under heavy pressure from the first point.
Raducanu may not possess enormous weight of shot, by modern tennis standards, but her footwork and placement make her a fiendishly difficult opponent, especially on a grass court.
Sakkari was discombobulated by Raducanu’s smart choices and unrelenting accuracy, as well as by her utterly cold ability to focus on the big points.
There were seven break points on the Raducanu serve in the match, but Sakkari could not convert a single one. Among these, two were saved by aces, and one by a forehand winner on the third shot of the rally.
Everyone in the locker-room knows that Raducanu possesses one of the cleanest backhands in the game: the question is how well she will serve and how well she will hit her forehand.
That inside-out forehand winner to save break point was perhaps the most telling blow of the match, because it is not a shot Raducanu normally hits. The freedom in her game made her believe the shot was on, and she duly converted.
“Today was really up there with the most fun I’ve had on a tennis court,” said Raducanu, who has what looks like a gimme in the fourth round against unknown New Zealander Lulu Sun, the world No123.
Raducanu made a run to the fourth round here in 2021 as a complete unknown, before suffering breathing difficulties and retiring from the match against Ajla Tomljanovic. Now it would be a surprise if she didn’t reach the quarter-finals.
