Emma Raducanu continues remarkable rise as she makes WTA final ahead of US Open qualifying

Roger Federer to miss US Open and undergo knee surgery

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Emma Raducanu’s rise continued as she defeated Claire Liu in three sets to reach the final of the Chicago Challenger event. Raducanu burst onto the scene in July this year after reaching the last 16 at Wimbledon.

Raducanu lost her first set of the tournament to the American Liu in the second set of their semi-final, but recovered to win the decider after a rain break allowed her to collect her thoughts.

The 18-year-old comfortably eased through that third set to win 7-6 (3) 4-6 6-1.

The result means she now takes on Clara Tauson from Denmark in the final on Sunday.

The win also means that she has continued her remarkable rise through the women’s rankings in 2021.

Having not been in the top 300 players as recently as June, Raducanu currently sits in 174th in the WTA standings, but that is likely to fall to under 150 after her tremendous exploits in Chicago this week.

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After playing the final there, Raducanu will head to the US Open qualifiers where she hopes to make the first Grand Slam outside the UK of her career. 

Raducanu is not the only player to be enjoying a surprisingly successful week.

At the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, Jil Teichmann remains in contention for the trophy after easily defeating Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova in straight sets. The Swiss player, who is only playing in the tournament on a wildcard, had already knocked out Naomi Osaka and the Olympics singles champion Belinda Bencic en-route to the semi-finals.

The 24-year-old now faces Australian world No.1 Ashleigh Barty in the final, who looked in ominous form during her routine win over Angelique Kerber.

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The final takes place on Sunday evening.

Teichmann, who is ranked 74th at the moment, said of her success: “It’s tough to explain, but when I ask my coaches what they think of me they say you’re an unexpected person who does random things. 

“I guess this is one of them. I’m feeling really good, serving good, moving well. I cannot even describe it.”

The US Open proper gets underway on August 30 at Flushing Meadows in New York.

Novak Djokovic will be hoping to complete the extremely rare calendar year Grand Slam by winning all four majors in a single season at the event.

His chances have been improved by the withdrawals of Roger Federer and more recently Rafael Nadal, who has been unable to recover from an injury to his left foot.

Federer is having a third surgery on the right knee which has made him miss most of the previous two years of tennis.

Djokovic hasn’t played since losing in the bronze medal match at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and has been seen enjoying himself in Serbia in the meantime.

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