Emma Raducanu boldly declared that she “truly feels at home in Asia” and going by her displays at the Korea Open, the 2021 US Open really does “thrive in Asia”.
Following a bizarre North American hard-court swing that saw her reach the quarter-final of the Citi Open in Washington DC before losing in the first round of the US Open to Sofia Kenin, Raducanu appears to have hit her straps in South Korea.
After a gutsy two-set win over Peyton Stearns that took nearly three hours to complete, the 21-year-old followed it up with a solid 6-4, 6-3 win over eighth seed Yuan Yue in just under two hours.
There were some hiccups along the way as she dropped serve in both sets, but Raducanu was in control most of the time as she broke twice in the opening set and then raced into a 3-0 lead in the second before Yuan threatened to fight way back.
Raducanu thought she wrapped up the match when serving at 5-2, but a call was overruled and Yuan claimed another break after saving four match points.
But the world No 40 had struggled on her own serve throughout the clash and it was no surprise when Raducanu wrapped it up on her seventh match point.
The bonus for Raducanu – who started the tournament at No 70 in the WTA Rankings – is another rise as she has climbed 16 places to No 54 in the Live Rankings.
Emma Raducanu learning harsh lessons from mistakes as she confirms big change
Emma Raducanu’s latest comments suggests she has found a long-term solution to her coaching problem
The 2021 US Open winner had come under fire over her questionable schedule decisions in recent months as she skipped most of the clay-court season, turned down the chance to play at the 2024 Paris Olympics and also played only one US Open warm-up event.
But she admitted she didn’t want to “overdo” things as she wanted to “prioritise” the Asian events.
“I always knew there was a really long block in Asia at the end of the year and I didn’t want to overdo myself in the first half of the year,” she told WTA Insider.
“If you look at the tournaments I played it was relatively light. I skipped quite a few weeks over the clay knowing that I’m at the stage where I’m not trying to win every event on the clay, on the grass and hard.
“I have to prioritise and Asia was one of those for me. So I stacked the year on the backend heavy, because I’m excited. I thrive in Asia. It’s where I truly feel like home.”
Now it seems like a wise decision as has reached her fifth quarter-final of the year, awaiting the winner of the Daria Kasatkina-Hailey Baptiste match.
