Sick Raducanu Raises Temperature To Beat Wang Xinyu At French Open

Emma Raducanu made positive strides at the Italian Open to reach the last 16, and her French Open dreams are still alive following the round of 128 on Monday. The 22-year-old beat China’s Wang Xinyu 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 after two and three-quarter hours of true grit. “Character and heart really came through today and I am really proud of that,” Raducanu told TNT Sports.

Raducanu’s day could easily have unraveled at 6-5 in the first set. She called for a medical timeout and had her blood pressure and temperature taken in scenes reminiscent of the second-round defeat at the Australian Open last year when she lost to Wang’s compatriot, Wang Yafan.

Raducanu used the time to gather her strength and serve the set out, but the prevailing illness was clearly affecting her ability to hold concentration after a grueling 63-minute opener. Wang subsequently took charge of the opening exchanges in the second.

Wang was still erratic on serve though. When she was broken at 5-1 up, the Briton started to swing more freely, sustaining the aggression long enough to climb back up the ladder only to fall off it and lose serve at 4-5 down. If it wasn’t quite like Novak Djokovic coming back from physical wobbles to suddenly rise like a phoenix, Raducanu had at least shown she was in the fight until the end.

The 2021 U.S. Open champion had come into the match with a niggling back problem sustained during her defeat to Danielle Collins in Strasbourg. The constant buzz about physicality has been a thorn in Raducanu’s side ever since her breakthrough tournament at Wimbledon 2021 after she retired from her fourth-round match against Ajla Tomljanovic. What happened next has gone down in history as she survived three weeks at Flushing Meadows without losing a set.

That is some peak for a hitherto unknown teenager and the downslide has been bumpy. The journey over the last four years has seen multiple coaches come and go, a whole host of injuries including wrist and ankle surgeries, and difficulty in winning consecutive matches. Recent developments have certainly helped her game and mindset with a casual coaching relationship with former junior mentor Mark Petchey adding to her trusted entourage. The impressive Miami Open win over Emma Navarro was a sign of more certainty in her game.

New fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura helped here as Raducanu refused to yield to her opponent or the clay surface which can sap the soul as well as stamina. When the deciding third set came around, it was Raducanu who looked revitalized as she took advantage of Wang’s double faults and drop-off to claim the win.

The next match is going to be the acid test when she takes on defending champion and four-time winner Iga Swiatek. Swiatek has hardly been in the best of form on the red dust, having lost to Collins in Rome and then been hammered by Coco Gauff in Madrid. The Pole hasn’t won a title in 2025 and is out of the world’s top four for the first time since 2021.

Swiatek crushed Raducanu when they met at the Australian Open in January as the Briton lost her serve five times. Raducanu was broken by Wang on seven occasions and the worry is that even a lukewarm Swiatek will be far too hot to handle on Wednesday. The Pole leads the head-to-head 4-0. The five-time Slam champion has never dropped a set against her second-round opponent.

Raducanu has proved that she has the mindset to take down those who wobble on the other side of the net. She loves a scrap, but against the very best there’s a huge deficit in score-lines at the moment (she lost to Coco Gauff 6-1 6-2 in Rome).

Coach or no coach, the world no.43 needs to solve the strategy as well as the physical puzzle to challenge the elite. “I’m looking forward to going out there. There’s not much pressure on me going out there, I think my game is in a great place so it’s a great challenge,” Raducanu said. Pressure won’t get to her. Now it’s about proving that she can handle the biggest winners in the sport.