WTA roundup: Emma Raducanu ousts Jessica Pegula in England

Home-country favorite Emma Raducanu stunned No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-5 to move into the quarterfinals of the Rothesay International in Eastbourne, England, on Wednesday.

For Raducanu, who won the 2021 U.S. Open, it was the first victory over a top 10 player in her career. Pegula, ranked No. 5 in the world, won the championship on the grass courts in Berlin last week.

Neither player could capitalize on her serve, with Pegula scoring on only 63 percent of her first serves to 66 percent for Raducanu in the two-hour, 42-minute match. Each broke serve six times, but there was no bigger point than in the second-set tiebreaker, when Raducanu fended off match point down 6-5 and went on to take the set.

Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the fifth seed, also was upset, with Katie Boulter of Great Britain earning the 6-4, 7-5 victory. Other winners included No. 3 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy, who was up 5-2 when Elise Mertens of Belgium retired, No. 4 seed Madison Keys, sixth-seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina and unseeded Leylah Fernandez of Canada, Brit Harriet Dart and Czech Karolina Muchova.

Bad Homburg

Former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark moved into the quarterfinals in Germany with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Veronika Kudermetova of Russia.

Wozniacki won six straight games to close out the first set and go up 2-0 in the second, aided by converting 70 percent of points on her serve compared with 49 percent for her opponent.

Next up for Wozniacki will be No. 3 seed Emma Navarro, who handled fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-4, 6-1. Other winners were Czech Katerina Siniakova and Russia’s Diana Shnaider.

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