British number one Emma Raducanu clinched a place in the HSBC Championships quarter-finals for a second straight year after securing a 6-4 6-2 win over Romanian Sorana Cirstea at the Queen’s Club.
There will be two Britons in the last eight after Katie Boulter also beat seventh-seeded Cirstea’s compatriot, Jaqueline Cristian, 6-1 6-3.
Raducanu will take on Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, who beat British wild card Harriet Dart, while Boulter faces a tough test in top-seeded Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
Raducanu was pleased to enact revenge after the same opponent got the better of the Briton at February’s Cluj-Napoca final.
Raducanu said on court: “Earlier in the year she beat me, but I’m glad I could get her back at home as well.
“I think I played a really high level. I knew that I had to, playing Sorana. I had to go out there and play aggressively and dictate, because otherwise I knew if I didn’t she would do that, and as soon as I took my foot off the gas a little bit or didn’t execute in the first set, she was coming back.
“I think straight from the get-go, she put a really good game on the court and I’m just really pleased that I’m able to play another match here.”
A washout of all of Thursday’s action meant a packed schedule on Friday, where all three British singles hopefuls needed to first come through their postponed last-16 clashes.
An animated and confident-looking Raducanu got out to a flying start, breaking her opponent’s serve at the first two opportunities to go up 4-0 in the first set.
But Cirstea grew into the match, converting her third break point to halve the deficit, and began to get the better of the Briton in sustained rallies late in the first set.
Raducanu claimed another break point to open the second set, holding Cirstea to love in the next game to set herself on course for victory, and was up a double break after the fifth game.
She upped her level, securing her second break and, buoyed by a strong first serve, closed in on the quarter-finals before Cirstea battled back to force another game.
Raducanu brought up two match points, punching her ticket to the next round with the second when Cirstea returned into the net.
Rybakina came through a tough battle with reigning HSBC champion Tatjana Maria, overcoming inconsistency and mistakes to beat the German – who got the best of her in last year’s quarter-finals – 6-7(4) 7-5 6-0.
Dart was beaten 5-7 6-1 7-5, slipping at the beginning of the second set but elected to carry on after a pause for physiotherapy.
