Emma Raducanu has reacted after she delivered an impressive performance to beat Sorana Cirstea in straight sets at the 2026 Queen’s Club Championships.
World No 42 Raducanu downed 18th-ranked Cirstea 6-4, 6-2 in the second round at the grass-court WTA 500 tournament in London.
The British No 1 is through to the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club for the second straight year, and she will face world No 78 Kamilla Rakhimova later today.
Raducanu raced into a 4-0 lead before holding off a fightback from Cirstea to seal the opening set.
The 23-year-old then broke twice as she dominated the second set to seal a convincing win against an in-form opponent.
With Raducanu leading 4-0 in the first set, Annabel Croft — who was commentating on the match for BBC — said that the Brit was under Cirstea’s skin.
“Well, she (Cirstea) looks pretty dejected right now,” said the former British No 1. “I feel as if Raducanu, psychologically, has got under her skin.”
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Raducanu’s win against Cirstea avenged a 0-6, 2-6 loss to the 36-year-old Romanian in the Cluj-Napoca final in February.
In her on-court interview, Raducanu said: “It feels incredible to have come out and played as I did today against Sorana. She’s been a player who, this year, has been in incredible form, had some amazing wins, reached a really high ranking.
“And earlier on in the year, she beat me, but I’m really pleased that I could kind of get her back at home, as well (laughs).”
The 2021 US Open winner added: “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 if I didn’t, she would do that.
“And as soon as I kind of took my foot off the gas a little bit, or didn’t execute in the first set, she was coming back.
“But yeah, I think straight from the get-go I actually I put a really good game on the court, and I’m really pleased that I’m able to play another match here.”
After the match, Croft gave her verdict on Raducanu’s performance.
“She’s taken it up a notch from her opening round,” assessed the former world No 24.
“I thought that she was going to be given a much bigger test from Cirstea, which she was, but she sort of matched it and kept on rising her own levels, and struck the ball with such authority, knew when to be patient and build the points, and knew when to step up and go for it.
“Great returns of serve, as we always say. And some really, really decent serving, getting a lot of free points off it.
“And when the going got tough and the rallies were extended, she did well.”
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