Emma Raducanu defeats Ana Bogdan at Transylvania Open

No. 3 seed Emma Raducanu gets her second consecutive win in Cluj, 6-3, 6-4 against Romanian Ana Bogdan, and moves into Transylvania Open’s quarterfinals. This will be the first quarterfinal for Emma, who has played only five WTA tournaments so far. For a place in the semifinals, the US Open champion will face the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who moved past German Mona Barthel, 6-4, 6-4.

First set was all about serve and return. Emma started by returning very good, and this helped her to break serve in the very first game of the match. Thanks to her serve she then managed to maintain the lead and eventually take the set.

Throughout that first set she only lost three points on her first serve, so it was almost impossible for Bogdan to break back. This also confirmed that, besides her amazing execution speed and regularity from the baseline, Emma’s game is based on serve and return.

Second set seemed to follow the same script: Raducanu managed to put pressure right from the first game, broke Bogdan’s serve and quickly moved to 2-0. But this time the Romanian came back, winning three games in a row. Those proved to be Bogdan’s best moments in the match.

As long as she managed to send the ball deep, close to the baseline, Ana stayed longer in the rallies and maintained the initiative. But after those moments, Emma reestablished the initial parameters: her return was very strong and often right into Bogdan’s feet, and the Romanian couldn’t find the appropriate reply. At 3-3 Emma broke serve for the second time and she maintained that lead until the end.

In the quarterfinals the young Brit will play against Marta Kostyuk, their first encounter so far.