Britain’s Emma Raducanu showed her determination by beating Greece’s ninth seed Marija Sakkari to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon.
The 21-year-old Raducanu again played his best tennis in a 6-2, 6-3 victory on Centre Court.
“Today was one of the most enjoyable days I’ve ever had on a tennis court,” said Raducanu, who recorded a stunning win over Sakkari in the 2021 U.S. Open semi-finals.
“I kept saying to myself: ‘How many times in my life am I going to get to stand in front of a packed Centre Court?'”
Entered as a wild card after injury had dropped her outside the world rankings of 100, she did not drop a set in the first week of the championships.
Raducanu, who reached a career-best fourth-round appearance in 2021, has dropped just 10 games since winning his opening tiebreaker.
She is the first British player to reach the last 16 in singles at Wimbledon this year after Sonai Kartal lost to American second seed Coco Gauff on a rainy Friday at the All England Club.
Kartalu, the first British qualifier to reach the third round of the women’s singles at Wimbledon since 1997, lost 6-4, 6-0 on Court 1.
Raducanu’s next opponent will be 123rd-ranked Lulu Sun, a qualifier from New Zealand who had never won a Grand Slam main draw match until this week.
Kartal hits trouble before dream streak ends
Kartal’s performance has been one of the talking points of Wimbledon so far.
Growing up in Brighton, she played regularly against Raducanu at junior level and footage of a lengthy rally between the pair when they were both nine years old has previously gone viral.
Raducanu won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier at 18 years old, but Kartal’s development has been hampered by injury and illness, and earlier this year she didn’t think she would be able to play Wimbledon because of “scary” health issues.
Kartal said this week that she had “spended her life largely out of the spotlight” but that playing against the reigning U.S. Open champion gave her a chance to step back into the limelight.
Kartal, ranked 298th in the world, tested Gauff in the opening set, but the second-seeded player then took the lead.
Gauff will face fellow American Emma Navarro, the 19th seed, in the quarterfinals.
“She was playing at a high level but she didn’t really give me many chances,” Gauff said. “She mixed up a lot of shots and didn’t let me settle in. I felt like I was hitting the right shots but just missed them.”
“In the end, we found them and were able to win.”
It was a shaky start as Gauff won the first eight points, but Kartal settled down and matched her opponent from the baseline. The crowd reacted when a Gauff double fault allowed Kartal to break back for 4-4.
But the match turned around in the next game when Gauff’s backhand was ruled long at deuce. When a review showed the ball had clipped the back of the line, the American celebrated with a challenge. She broke again with another backhand winner on the next point, and then shortly afterwards an ace from Gauff sealed the set, eliciting cheers from her team.
Kartal was broken again at love early in the second set, but Gauff, who won 90 per cent of her first-serve points, weathered it to advance.
