Emma Raducanu sent an ominous warning to Iga Swiatek ahead of their quarter-final showdown at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. The world No. 303 admitted that she wasn’t “surprised” by her dominant wins after dropping just eight games across her two matches in Stuttgart. And she’s ready to come out swinging against the two-time reigning champion on Friday.
Raducanu defeated Linda Noskova 6-0 7-5 to reach her first quarter-final since September 2022. The Brit has been sublime so far in Stuttgart, also beating three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber 6-2 6-1 on Wednesday night.
She is now on a four-match winning streak, having come through both of her matches in Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier tie over the weekend. It’s her longest winning run since she clinched the 2021 US Open trophy as a qualifier, storming through 10 matches without dropping a set.
Since then, Raducanu’s young career has been derailed by injuries and setbacks. But she isn’t shocked by her latest results after putting in the groundwork. “I mean I must say, I’m not too surprised because I’ve been working really hard on the training court and I knew it was a just matter of time,” Raducanu told Andrea Petkovic after her second-round win.
“And honestly, I don’t think this is my best, I think I still have a long way to go.” Raducanu has made it a priority to build the foundations this year after cutting her 2023 season short to undergo three surgeries and she is finally seeing the rewards.
She continued: “But I’m just really happy that the rewards are starting to come on the match court because you know how it is when you’re training day in, day out and you feel like the results aren’t exactly going your way. But it’s never that far away I guess and that’s something I’ve been learning. Just doing the right things every single day and then things happen and you don’t even know how or why.”
Raducanu will now be aiming to make it third time lucky against Swiatek after losing their first two meetings, including a match in the Stuttgart quarter-finals two years ago. The world No. 1 has never lost a match in Stuttgart, winning the title in the last two editions of the tournament, but Raducanu made it clear that she had nothing to lose and was ready to give it a good go.
