British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

indiana · Tennis legend

week 32 - WTA1000 - Cincinnati, USA Hard

Jan · Hall of fame

TB time

GBJ · County player

Apparently it's 15 tiebreaks in a row Sabalenka has won! What a way to win a match like this that would be to end that run! Come on Emma!!

PaulM · Tennis legend

Amazing effort from Emma. Sabalenka hit an obscene amount of errors today but Emma played to a fantastic level. Really exciting to see and hopefully she can maintain it with more favourable draws!

Peter too · Tennis legend

R3: Emma Raducanu (GBR) [30] WR 33 (CH 10 2022) lost to Aryna Sabalenka (***) [1] WR 1 6-7(3) 6-4 6-7(5)

Peter too · Tennis legend

Emma won more points than Aryna, 125 to 122.

Jajon · Club Coach

Ooooooooft that will hurt- was fun match to watch though. Also her body held up remarkably well for 3 hour match in that heat? So lets celebrate that

indiana · Tennis legend

Well, that's 16 TBs in a row then - and some folk try to say TBs are random.

What serving from both of them in the final TB. Emma would no doubt like the point back that made it *2-4 when she should have put the ball away. But otherwise she fought to the end there against a Sabalenka who in turn was giving nothing away at the end, whatever may have been happening earlier ( these 2 awful points for 5-5* 30-30* in the final set really had my hopes up ).

Hard luck, Emma. Very well played!!

GBJ · County player

I find myself thinking of a tearful 2012 Wimbledon final Andy Murray quote!

B00thy · Club Coach

It's great watching Emma playing to her potential. And so much of her game continues to improve. But it's about 9 months now since realising how many points she gives away when, with the court at her mercy she plays it back to her opponent. Given that matches hang on small differences it's galling that in these instances, so many are points she should be winning 7or 8 times out of 10 but it's nearer 4 or 5 out of 10 she actually wins.

I hope it's something she is trying to work on as it looks like her opponents are now anticipating this. Her instinct in the clutch moments tends more to the safety shot than the calculated risk, although it's so much better than the constant safety first of 6 months ago.

It's great to watch her like I say. She is improving little by little and perhaps it'll only be between US Open and Australian that she'll get the time to work on her game sufficiently to take her to the next level, because she's definitely capable of much more than this

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Perhaps its good that Emma has some rest before US OPen now and time to reflect & learn from that match with her new coach.

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Monday 11th of August 2025 08:18:03 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Cracking match - that 8th game in the final set was epic.

Sabalenka pulled out two huge aces to win the tie break. She just has gears and knows when to up her levels.

Var · Futures qualifying

Well done Emma, gave it your all. Getting closer all the time and on Arynas favourite surface. She will beat her next time for sure. At least there is one Brit firing in the US swing. The rest have been pretty disappointing TBH.

indiana · Tennis legend

In Washington Emma was reported as only having her hitting partner Alexis Canter in her corner.

Well, he isn't in Cincinnati because he's a MD WC in Aldershot.

Clearly the new coach is in. I wonder if Alexis is no longer involved?

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I didn't see the match, but looking at the comments there are certainly some positives to take from her level and body holding up even though Sabalenka made lots of UEs that might make the scoreline look more competitive than it was? Also it seem that Sabalenka did what she needed to do whereas Emma played at the top of her current game. Still, it gives a better idea of Emma's level.

I'm curious about her coaching/hitting partner situation, and a little concerned that she still doesn't have a stable team around her.