WASHINGTON — Reigning U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu reached her second quarterfinal of the season Thursday, edging Camila Osorio 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) at the Citi Open over nearly three hours on a hot and humid afternoon.
With the temperature in the 90s Fahrenheit (30s Celsius), the second-seeded Raducanu took a medical timeout late in the second set to get treatment from a trainer for blisters on her racket-wielding right hand.
Osorio was visited by a trainer earlier.
Raducanu’s only other quarterfinal appearance in a dozen tournaments in 2022 came back in April on red clay at Stuttgart, Germany, where she lost at that stage to No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek. This time, Raducanu will face 60th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova for a berth in the semifinals at the hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open, which begins on Aug. 29.
Samsonova came back to get past Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday.
Raducanu, the British player who won the title at Flushing Meadows as a qualifier a year ago at age 18, kept giving away leads against Osorio, a 20-year-old from Colombia.
Raducanu was up 3-0 at the match’s outset, then needed to get through a tiebreaker to pull out the opening set. She served for the match at 5-4 in the second, but got broken there thanks to three double-faults and a forehand into the net.
Still, Raducanu again was better in the tiebreaker, closing out the victory when Osorio sent a service return wide. Raducanu, who has lost in the second round at each of this year’s major tournaments, dropped her racket and covered her eyes with both hands.
After the players met for a hug at the net, Raducanu appeared to be too exhausted for a full wave to the crowd on what Yoshihito Nishioka called a “crazy hot day” after he beat seventh-seeded Karen Khachanov 7-6 (2), 7-6 (1).
Nishioka now meets Dan Evans in the quarterfinals. Evans advanced when third-seeded Taylor Fritz – the highest American man in the rankings – stopped playing in the third set because he did not feel well.
In other results, lucky loser Wang Xiyu eliminated Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the women’s bracket, and Mikael Ymer defeated Emil Ruusuvuori 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4 in the men’s.
Raducanu into Washington quarterfinals; Fritz stops in heat originally appeared on NBCSports.com