Former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu thrilled the home crowd in London by winning a pair of matches over several hours at the HSBC Championships on Saturday to advance to the tournament finals.
The oft-injured 2021 champion knocked off Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, 6-3, 7-5, then came back a few hours later to oust No. 6 Iva Jovic, 6-2, 6-2.
In between those matches, Croatian Donna Vekic, a lucky loser into the main draw, defeated the United Kingdom’s Katie Boulter, 6-1, 6-3.
Vekic and Raducanu will meet for the first time on Sunday. The 29-year old Vekic has four WTA titles under her belt, while the London native is seeking her second.
Raducanu broke Jovic five times in their match and took advantage of the 18-year old American’s 58 percent first serve efficiency.
Vekic won 23-of-25 points on her first serve against Boulter and never faced a break point.
Libema Open
Robin Montgomery, ranked No. 484 in the world, knocked off Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, 6-4, 6-2, to reach her first-ever finals in the ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands event on Saturday.
Montgomery, will take on eighth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in Sunday’s finals. Krejcikova, the lone seeded player to reach the quarterfinals of the grass court event, edged Poland’s Magda Linette, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Linette served at 5-4 in the second set, staved off four break points, but could not convert on a fifth. She took a 3-0 lead in the tie-breaker, but Krejcikova stormed back to win seven-of-eight to earn the win.
Montgomery smacked 11 aces and won 28-of-33 points on her first serve against Tomljanovic.
The two players have never competed against one another in a tour-level match.
–Field Level Media
