(Tennis news) British teenager Emma Raducanu produced a ruthless display to defeat Victoria Azarenka 6-0 6-2 at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. Having defeated Serena Williams, Raducanu looks like the player who created history by winning the US Open and showed tremendous focus to defeat her experienced opponent. The 33 year old Belarusian couldn’t hold the serve until the fifth game of the second set and appeared to struggle massively right from the get go.

Raducanu on the other hand showed great intensity throughout the two sets and will now take on Jessica Pegula in the round of 16 after the American defeated Marta Kostyuk 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-2. Speaking after the match, Raducanu said “I was playing a great match for sure. I had to stay really focused throughout and in the second set I could feel the important moments. There were a couple of turning points that could have made the second set really, really difficult… more than it already was.

"I'm really pleased with how I dug in and served it out in that last game as well. It was another great honour to play Vika, she's won so many Championships and Slams. It's just a great opportunity for me to be out here." When asked about her mindset, Raducanu replied “I think I've realised in the last year that people are going to talk, regardless of what you do. The things that I do are maybe more amplified because of my situation. I've just learned to really zone in internally. Today and yesterday, I didn't really show any emotion. I didn't let myself get high or low, I was just at one level and I think that helped." 

Raducanu wrapped up the first set in just 26 minutes, hitting a series of winners and gave Azarenka very little breathing room as her opponent only managed to get 13 points. The Belarusian made a number of errors as Raducanu won four more games to reach the cusp of victory. Azarenka, who won the tournament in 2020 won her first game in her 11th attempt while holding the serve but couldn’t mount a comeback. In other results, Ons Jabeur defeated Caty McNally 6-3 4-6 7-6 (9-7) in two hours and 23 minutes while Simona Halep was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to an injury on her right thigh.

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