Emma Raducanu exits Citi Open; China’s Wang Xiyu through to semi-finals in Washington
- The 19-year-old British second seed loses in straight sets to Liudmila Samsonova
- Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios powers into last four of men’s singles draw with battling win over Frances Tiafoe
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Emma Raducanu was knocked out of the ATP and WTA Washington Open on Friday, with her conqueror Liudmila Samsonova setting up a semi-final against China’s Wang Xiyu.
World No 95 Wang, seeking her first WTA title, cruised past two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3.
The 21-year-old lucky loser is through to just her second career WTA semi-final, having reached the last four at Valencia in June.
Samsonova upset US Open champion Emma Raducanu 7-6(6), 6-1. The 19-year-old British second seed was seeking her first semi-final since her grand slam triumph.
Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-3 to reach a semi-final against Aussie Daria Saville, who beat Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino 6-1, 7-5.
It’s Saville’s first semi-final since 2018 at Acapulco while world No 37 Kanepi seeks her fifth career WTA title but first since the 2013 Brussels Open.
On the men’s side, top seed Andrey Rublev won twice on Friday to reach the semi-finals, dispatching Americans Maxime Cressy and J.J. Wolf at the US Open warm-up event.
World No 8 Rublev defeated Cressy 6-4, 7-6(8) in one hour and 42 minutes, and then eliminated wild card Wolf 6-2, 6-3 in 78 minutes.
“I didn’t spend much time on court,” Rublev said of his three-hour total. “That was the main key today.”
Rain on Thursday night forced double duty upon Rublev and several others but Friday storms provided everyone a timely rest break between matches.
Next in Rublev’s path is Japan’s 96th-ranked Yoshihito Nishioka, who outlasted British 16th seed Daniel Evans 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5 after three hours and 35 minutes.
“Rather than to spend two matches like me than one match like him,” Rublev said.
Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios fired 35 aces on his way to beating hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 6-7(5), 7-6 (12), 6-2 and reaching the other semi-final against Sweden’s 115th-ranked Mikael Ymer.
Australia’s 63rd-ranked Kyrgios, who won the most recent of his six ATP titles at Washington in 2019, needed only 14 minutes to complete an early win over US fourth seed Reilly Opelka 7-6(1), 6-2.
Kyrgios then outlasted 27th-ranked Tiafoe after two and a half hours, yelling, “I want to go to bed” in the third set of a match that ended at 1am.
Ymer, who lost his only ATP final last August at Winston-Salem, beat American Sebastian Korda 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 after two hours and 27 minutes.
