Maybe it turned out to be the right decision, as her coach appeared to be the issue. Since parting ways with Francis Roig, Emma Raducanu has delivered strong performances on court and has now reached the semi-finals of the Transylvania Open, defeating Maja Chwalinska in straight sets.
Raducanu played a perfect first set, winning it 6–0. Chwalinska fought back in the second set and broke serve early to put Raducanu under pressure. However, the top seed stayed calm, broke back straight away, and held her serve for the rest of the match to win 6–0, 6–4.
Speaking to the media after her victory, Raducanu said,” I’m very happy with my performance.
“I played a great match from the beginning, and I was so happy to have that start.
“There’s always going to be moments of adversity that I need to overcome, and I did that well in the second set, so really proud of how I did that.
“Maja is a really tough opponent, moves so well, has great hand skills, so I’m really happy with how I overcame that challenge.”
Raducanu will now face Oleksandra Oliynykova in the semi-finals as they have met once in March 2018 in the qualifying rounds of a tournament in Nanjing, China, where Raducanu won 7-6(2), 6-1.
The 23-year-old did get a chance to watch Oliynykova, as she was on court earlier, and said, “I saw a little bit because she played before me. I didn’t have much time last night to prepare for this match. I’m really focused on recovery ,no matter how long a match lasts, it takes a lot out of you, so I need to recover properly.”
