Aryna Sabalenka quells Emma Raducanu and Centre Court crowd to advance at Wimbledon
No one questions the world No. 1's ability, but the way she struggled in the French Open final against Coco Gauff when things started to go against her invited the possibility of a raucous atmosphere getting to her. She also lost to Gauff from a set up in the 2023 U.S. Open final, when she appeared overwhelmed by the support for her opponent.
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Would the same thing happen to her at Wimbledon? The ingredients were there, as a raucous Friday night crowd roared their player on in hope of inspiring an upset and Raducanu, the world No. 40, did not look overawed. To set up this match, Raducanu defeated Markéta Vondroušová, the 2023 Wimbledon champion who had beaten Sabalenka ahead of Wimbledon in Berlin, and she looked to impose herself on the world No. 1 as she had Vondroušová.
She ultimately fell short, but this is a performance that will give her a huge amount of confidence. She has lost to a top player for the third straight major, but this was nothing like the hammerings she received from Iga Świątek at the Australian Open and Roland Garros.
This was the first appointment-viewing match of the tournament. The world No. 1 against the great home hope. Both Grand Slam champions, and despite the vast difference in ranking and career achievements, two of the biggest names in the sport. Throw in an 8 p.m. start on a Friday night and the crackling excitement was there from the start.
Not since 1977 had a British woman beaten the top seed at Wimbledon. The odds weren't in Raducanu's favour, but how much did odds matter to a player who won the U.S. Open as an 18-year-old qualifier?
Raducanu needed to make a good start, to bring the crowd into the equation and see how Sabalenka would respond. She kept her end of the bargain with an early break, but was pegged back by a run of eight points in a row from her opponent that helped turn a 4-2 Raducanu lead into a 5-4 deficit.
Then came one of the most dramatic games ever seen on this court. Sabalenka forced seven set points; Raducanu saved every single one, five of them with serves that forced Sabalenka into missed backhands. The noise that met Raducanu holding was so loud it sounded as though the reverberations would be felt beyond the 11 p.m. curfew.
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It got even louder a few minutes later when Raducanu broke again and had the chance to serve out the set. Memories of Heather Watson coming within two points of beating the world No. 1 Serena Williams on this court at the same stage on the same day of the tournament 10 years ago came flooding back. It was deafeningly loud then, and it was again now. 'Wow,' Sabalenka said of the atmosphere in her on-court interview. 'My ears are still hurting.'
A seemingly frazzled Sabalenka broke back to force the tiebreak, but Raducanu forced a set point of her own at 6-5. At this point Sabalenka showed why she's the world No. 1, producing a stunning backhand drop shot that completely outfoxed her opponent. People focus on Sabalenka's fearsome power but it's the variety and comfort in adversity that she has added that has turned her from streaky into a serial champion.
A couple of points later, Sabalenka finally clinched the opener on what was her eighth set point. A vocal player normally, there was no sound from her this time, just a knowing look to her team. She acknowledged after that she needed to stay calm and not make the same mistakes she had made in Paris.
It would have been easy for Raducanu to fade after losing a grueling 74-minute set, but she dug in and broke early in the second, racing to a 4-1 lead. Her aggressive returning always felt like her most plausible route to victory against Sabalenka's often vulnerable serve, and continuing to jump on it earned Raducanu a point for a double break 5-1 lead. Sabalenka saved it though, and then fended off two game points on the Raducanu serve to break back for 4-3. Tennis' scoring system can be a cruel mistress, but the best players seem to find a way to make it work for them.
Sabalenka had the momentum and raced through the final three games. And it may only have been a third-round match against the world No. 40, but context is everything. This was a precious victory for Sabalenka, who had missed two of the past three Wimbledons. She is desperate to win here for the first time, just as she was at Roland Garros.
She still has a long way to go to get there, with No. 24 seed Elise Mertens next, but whatever happens from here this was a significant victory for the world No. 1.
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