Raducanu battles past resilient Rakhimova to reach the Queen’s last four

Englishwoman Emma Raducanu came through a testing second set to beat Uzbek qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday and reach the semi-finals of The HSBC Championships, recovering from a mid-match scare to keep her run on the Queen’s Club grass alive.

Raducanu, ranked No 42, had looked in command early. After a slow start in which neither player settled, the British No 1 found her rhythm following a brief pause for a flypast over the Andy Murray Arena, reeling off a series of comfortable holds – two of them to love – to close out the opening set. Her serve was the foundation, as it has been all week: she won 85 percent of points behind her first delivery in the first set.

A slip, a medical timeout and a fight to the finish

The aggression on return that has defined Raducanu’s week carried into the second set, where she broke immediately with a backhand return winner. The match turned awkward when she slipped while leading 3-1 and took a medical timeout at 3-2, returning with heavy strapping on her left thigh. Rakhimova pounced, breaking from 0-40 down had been clawed back to deuce to level at 3-3.

From there the set became a series of exchanged blows. Raducanu broke for 5-4 and served for the match, only for the resilient Rakhimova, vocal and combative throughout, to break straight back. Raducanu broke again with another biting return, served for it a second time and, after a couple of missed attempts, finally closed it out at the net.

Raducanu reached the last eight by beating Romanian seventh seed Sorana Cirstea (6-4, 6-2) and Russian Anna Blinkova (6-0, 6-3), while Rakhimova had edged compatriot, Englishwoman Harriet Dart (5-7, 6-1, 7-5) in the previous round. She next meets American sixth seed Iva Jovic, the 18-year-old who upset second seed Amanda Anisimova to reach her own first semi-final here.