One day after thrashing Serena Williams, 10th-seeded Emma Raducanu dismantled another Grand Slam champion by rolling to a 6–0, 6–2 win over Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday in the second round of the Western & Southern Open at Mason, Ohio.
The 19-year-old Brit had five aces and converted five of six break points in the easy 62-minute beatdown of Azarenka, a 33-year-old from Belarus.
In her first two matches at the Cincinnati-area event, Raducanu has resembled the form that saw her win last year’s U.S. Open. She needed just 65 minutes to beat Williams on Tuesday night and brought the same level of play less than 24 hours later.
“I was playing a great match for sure and to play Vika I had to stay focused throughout,” Raducanu said afterward. “In the second set I could feel the important moments and a couple of turning points that could have made the second set really difficult.
“I am really pleased with how I dug in, and serving it out in that last game was really difficult.”
The win over Azarenka—ranked 22nd in the world—was Raducanu first over a top-30 player since her U.S. Open title run.
Raducanu hit 18 winners to Azarenka’s 10.
Raducanu next faces seventh-seeded Jessica Pegula, who rallied for a 6–7 (5), 6–1, 6–2 win over Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.
