British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Week 30 - WTA500 - Washington, USA - Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

If Emma wins her SF she will face Fernandez in the final, who just came through a three and a quarter hour match involving three tie breaks. She looked full of energy at the end but she must be feeling a bit tired after that.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

If Emma makes her second ever final at WTA level, to meet Fernandez again would be an amazing coincidence - destiny?

MrTSymonds · Lower Club Player

I wonder if anyone has ever won their first two titles against the same player.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Emma loses the opening set 6-4

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Oh dear, and I dont think I can stay awake any longer.

B00thy · Club Coach

Kalinskaya shaded it. But she's looking the better player to be fair

Peter too · Tennis legend

SF: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR46 lost to Anna Kalinskaya (***) WR48 4-6 3-6

B00thy · Club Coach

Emma played similar level to this tournament but Kalinskaya's level was just too good. Bed beckons

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Emma looked good early on then faded, especially after missing a routine backhand shot on bp at 3-2*. Awful serving to get broken for 4-5*; 2nd serve lacked penetration once again. A couple of good returns gave Raducanu two break points as Kalinskaya served for the set but Anna's level stayed relatively high on the key points while Emma was unable to find anything special.

Compared to Kalinskaya, Rybakina and Leylah Fernandez, Emma was the only player to play cautiously at times, the others were playing very aggressively in seemingly ideal conditions for attacking tennis. Emma completely misjudged the speed required for 2nd serves on this court. It was far too easy for Kalinskaya to dominate whenever Emma missed her first serve, as happened again at the start of the 2nd set, broken to 15, four 2nd serve points in a row lost, three backhand winners from Anna.

Out of nowhere, Kalinskaya gifted Emma a break back to love with 4 errors for 1-1 but Raducanu's level had dropped significantly, so she was soon behind again. Another bp chance wasted by a b cc error into the net at 3-4* in the 2nd set and could have done better on a couple of earlier points in that game.

While Emma is clearly making some progress, she is still miles away from the style of tennis that allowed her to win the US Open in 2021. She is also physically a long way behind other WTA players as becomes apparent when required to play the next day. Don't even think she learned from her loss to Paula Badosa in Washington last year.

Anna Kalinskaya was impressive but so too were Rybakina, Leylah, even Sakkari in her win over Emma Navarro in early evening conditions earlier in the week.

-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 27th of July 2025 04:13:02 AM

Peter too · Tennis legend

Emma was missing more 1st serves than has been usual and Anna was hitting the line from all over the court. Emma fought hard got into deuce many times and earned several break points but took less break points than her opponent. Anna was just too good today. Still it's still been a good week for Emma, moving up to 33 in the live rankings.

Peter too · Tennis legend

I got the impression towards the end of the match that Emma was starting to get troubled by her back again. It may just be muscle fatigue from playing so many tough matches and be OK again by the time of her first match in Montreal. If not we may see her withdraw from Montreal to give it a few more days to recover.

indiana · Tennis legend

Didn't see any of it but amazed that Emma got as many games as she did, plus losing so many tight games, with a rubbish performance against an impressive top 50 player

Edit: I see that "rubbish performance" has now been edited out from the start of the above match report. Kalinskaya remains as having been "impressive".

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 27th of July 2025 10:55:52 AM

Mervatron2 · Challenger level

Shame but a solid week and a step forward.

Neil Gee · County player

Peter too wrote:
If Emma wins her SF she will face Fernandez in the final, who just came through a three and a quarter hour match involving three tie breaks. She looked full of energy at the end but she must be feeling a bit tired after that.

So the rematch that Emma promised Leylah would happen 'many times' after the US Open in 2021 has failed to materialise again. She must be wondering if it's ever going to happen.