Sabalenka and Raducanu have won their round-of-16 matches in Washington.
Aryna Sabalenka survived a big scare in her opening match at a WTA 500 tournament after edging out 105th-ranked qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova 7-5 4-6 6-4 while Emma Raducanu managed to get the job done in two sets versus Peyton Stearns 7-6 (6) 6-2 and progress into the quarterfinal.
On Wednesday in Washington, Sabalenka – who had a first-round bye at the tournament as the top-seeded player – launched her run. But it was all but an easy match for Sabalenka, who was tested very hard before completing a win and booking a meeting against the winner of the match between Victoria Azarenka and Wang Yafan.
Meanwhile, Raducanu was up early against Stearns when rain suspended their match. After resuming action, Raducanu lost her early lead but still managed to complete a straight-set win and seal a meeting versus either Paula Badosa or Liudmila Samsonova.
How Sabalenka and Raducanu won their respective Washington matches?
After making a slow start and falling 1-3 down early, Sabalenka responded by breaking Rakhimova in the fifth and 11th games to overturn the deficit and still win the opener.
In the second set, Sabalenka again recovered from a break down – but this time Rakhimova didn’t allow the Belarusian to make a full comeback after the Russian qualifier broke the No. 1 seed in the 10th game when the two-time Slam champion was serving to stay in the set.
After dropping the second set, Sabalenka also faced some potentially tricky situations in the third set but managed to save a break point sixth game before earning the first and lone break of the decider in the following game.
Meanwhile in the Raducanu and Stearns match, the Briton saved three break points in the fourth game before getting a break in the fifth game and eventually opening a 5-3 lead.
With Raducanu serving for the first set at 5-4, she was facing 15/30 on her serve when the match was suspended due to rain. When action continued, Raducanu got herself a set point in that same game but failed to convert as Stearns managed to force a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Raducanu missed out on two more set points before finally realizing her fourth set point to win a tight opener.
Up by a set, Raducanu also broke Stearns in the second and eighth games of the second set to routinely complete her two-set win.
