Emma Raducanu is out of the Queen’s Club Championships at the quarter-final stage, having failed to produce enough quality to overcome Qinwen Zheng.
The world number five was impressive throughout, but there were windows of opportunity for the 22-year-old to apply more pressure to the top seed, particularly in the second set.
However, she failed to make those chances pay, resulting in a disappointingly routine defeat.
This felt like a real missed opportunity for Emma Raducanu, who did seem to be building on the grass. That was, until the match was somewhat marred by her persistent back injury flaring up once again.
She touched on this in her post-match interview, as well as her relationship with yesterday’s opponent.
Emma Raducanu reacts to losing in Queen’s quarter-final
Speaking to the Queen’s press right after her defeat, Raducanu began by outlining how Zheng managed to neutralise her: ‘I think returning is one of my big strengths, and I think Qinwen served really well. I didn’t see many second serves. And she hit her spots really well in some big moments.
‘Yeah, credit to her. She kind of took away one of my bigger strengths. I think I have a lot of work to do, to be honest.’
Then asked what her relationship with the Chinese star was, given the two have been pictured speaking the language together, Raducanu continued: ‘Yeah, I mean, I have known her since juniors, you know, since we were very young and we played in Orange Bowl, Under-12s.
‘So I have seen her around for a long time. Yeah, I guess we took very different paths to kind of get where we are. I know she’s been playing tennis and focusing on that, like, however many hours a day for years, and I kind of went to school and I haven’t got enough hours in the bank in comparison.
‘So I think I’m playing catch up now. My relationship is good. Like, we say hi and stuff, but I wouldn’t say I’m close to necessarily many tennis players.’
It’s a shame that such a strong tournament, where Raducanu became the new British number one, ended in such unceremonious fashion.
Emma Raducanu still a fair distance away from the WTA’s elite
Although 2025 has been a year of great progression for the Brit, losses like these can be quite sobering.
After all, it confirms that, whilst she is improving, Raducanu is still quite a way off from being at the true apex of the women’s game.
This year she has faced a handful of top-level players, and failed to really trouble any of them.
Iga Swiatek comfortably beat her in both the Australian Open and Roland Garros. Jessica Pegula pulled through against her in Miami. Coco Gauff brushed her aside in Rome.
She did record an impressive win against Emma Navarro, and has upset plenty of seeds during that period, but Zheng just adds to a list of top-ten players who she cannot seem to break through against.
Raducanu is yet to register a single win in her career against any of Swiatek, Gauff or Aryna Sabalenka.
These are not meant to be easy matches, and few on the tour ever breeze past players of this calibre. However, defeats to stars like Zheng should offer further motivation to continue improving if she really wants to establish herself as a top-level threat on tour.
