October 09, (THEWILL) – Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the world No. 100, stopped Emma Raducanu’s 10-match winning streak at the BNP Paribas Open second round on Friday night, defeating the reigning US Open champion 6-2, 6-4.
Raducanu was on a 10-match winning streak coming into the second round fight, following her historic triumph run at the US Open, where she won 20 consecutive sets in qualification and the main event to become the first British woman to win a major since Virginia Wade in 1977.
Sasnovich, who reached a career high of No. 30 in 2018, only earned one Top 50 victory in a completed match this season. Yet, despite her poor performance in 2021, the Belarussian has a track record of being a seed-slaying threat in the early rounds of major tournaments.
In her career, the 27-year-old has had racked up 15 Top 20 triumphs, including victories over Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon in 2018, Elina Svitolina in Brisbane in 2018, and Karolina Pliskova in Tokyo in 2016.
Raducanu continued where she left off in New York, calmly reeling off the first six points with flawless first-strike tennis. Sasnovich withstood the early surge and began to find consistent depth off the baseline, with both players looking to play offensive tennis. The Belarusian broke first, taking a 3-1 lead, and then broke Raducanu’s serve for a 5-2 advantage, ending the first set in 30 minutes.
In the opening set, both players had eight winners, but Sasnovich was significantly more efficient than Raducanu, who had 12 unforced errors to Sasnovich’s four. She was also the more opportunistic, converting both break point opportunities and never offering the Brit a chance to break her serve.
Sasnovich broke after a tough first game of the second set, breaking on her fourth break point of the game to take the lead right away. Raducanu, on the other hand, dug in and refused to let Sasnovich run away with the game. In the next game, the Brit grabbed her first break point of the match and broke to tie the score at 1-1.
From then, Raducanu continued to put pressure on the Sasnovich serve. Sasnovich saved three break chances to keep the score at 2-2, but Raducanu broke from 0-40 to take the lead 4-2.
Raducanu’s advantage would be brief. She struggled in the second set, falling behind 0-40 after battling back from a break down to lead 4-2. She did well to close the gap to 30-40 with two big first serves, but she netted a regulation backhand to surrender the break.
After breaking Raducanu for the fifth time to 5-4, Sasnovich seized the opportunity and served out the match for a straight-set win after 1 hour and 25 minutes.
“I saw a few matches of her when she played US Open and Wimbledon as well,” Sasnovich said in her post-match comments. “She’s really a talented girl. She has a strong forehand, backhand. She tries to be always aggressive.”
“It was a really good match for me. I play really well. I know she just won US Open. I lost there in the first round. So a little bit different. But I tried to go on court, I tried to enjoy. I did everything right and I’m happy with the result, of course.”
By taking advantage of Raducanu’s second serve, Sasnovich put the pressure on her serve all night. While their success rates against the first serve were nearly identical, Sasnovich won 76.2 percent of her second serve return points, while Raducanu won 57.1 percent. Her ability to put pressure on Raducanu’s serve earned her 11 break points for the match, compared to Raducanu’s 5.
Sasnovich was the cleanest player off the ground at the end of the game. She had 17 wins and only 19 unforced errors, compared against Raducanu’s 15 winners and 31 unforced errors.
On Sunday, Sasnovich will compete for a place in the Round of 16 against 2015 winner Simona Halep.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
