WASHINGTON — Emma Raducanu dominated her first career matchup against Naomi Osaka, winning the showdown between past US Open champions at the D.C. Open on Thursday 6-4, 6-2.
“I did feel it had a bit of extra,” Raducanu said. “It’s a match that I feel a lot of people were talking about beforehand. I knew that ahead of the match, but I actually quite like these kind of matchups, where you’re playing a great opponent. A lot of people have eyes on the match. They’re into it. I enjoy it. I’m just pleased with how I was able to navigate playing a four-time Slam champ.”
Raducanu, the first qualifier to claim a Grand Slam title when she did that in New York in 2021, saved the only two break points she faced and managed to break the big-serving Osaka three times.
“I’m serving better, and that helps a lot. I always returned pretty decent, but the element of just when I serve well, it does add another dimension to my game,” Raducanu said. “I’m able to kind of start the points better and look for my forehand and get that into play a bit more and then dictate.”
Osaka was hurt by seven double-faults.
“I feel like from the baseline, I was doing pretty well,” said Osaka, who the US Open and Australian Open twice each. “I think there are certain situations where she got one more ball back and I was kind of just looking and waiting.”
Raducanu, who is ranked 46th, will face Maria Sakkari in the quarterfinals. Sakkari eliminated No. 2 seed Emma Navarro on Wednesday.
Venus Williams, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion back on tour at age 45, was scheduled to face Magdalena Frech at night.
Winners in men’s action Thursday at the hard-court tournament in Washington included No. 4 seed Ben Shelton, No. 7 Alex De Minaur, No. 8 Daniil Medvedev, No. 12 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and No. 14 Brandon Nakashima.
