Raducanu justifies primetime billing even as Sabalenka’s superpower wins out | Jonathan Liew
Britain’s No 1 was outpointed when her opponent raised her game but showed why she merits the hype and spotlight that surrounds herIt’s a little after 8pm by the time the first ball is tossed.Karen Khachanov has just beaten Nuno Borges on No 3 Court and so even before it has started Emma Raducanu v Aryna Sabalenka is the last game on anywhere at Wimbledon: a standalone attraction, the roof not so much closed as hermetically sealed.We are locked in, under these hot lights, until nightfall.And of course this is not simply a third-round game.At the behest of the broadcasters this is also a primetime television product, an item of light entertainment.
Raducanu isn’t just battling the world No 1 here, she’s up against Gardeners’ World on BBC Two.The hill is packed.Brian Cox and Mary Berry in the Royal Box are transfixed.And to think Roland Garros would probably have put this match on in mid-morning.But something about Raducanu in primetime still feels a touch incongruous, and not only because of her world ranking of 45.
For this is not instinctively a player you associate with edge-of-the-seat drama or vintage comebacks.Usually Raducanu wins in a hurry and loses in a hurry.She has never won a third set at Wimbledon.So in a way, for all she has achieved, this is a player still awaiting her big homecoming, her Centre Court splash.None of which, of course, has stopped people from trying to confect drama around her.
Sonay Kartal’s progress to the fourth round has been met with a deluge of Raducanu-themed headlines,“Kartal steps out of Raducanu’s shadow”, “Raducanu’s old rival”, “overtakes Raducanu in the rankings”, and so on,Cameron Norrie has just been asked in his press conference whether he is dating Raducanu,One stalker has already been banned from the grounds, but others, it seems, are still walking around with lanyards around their necks,On Wednesday after beating Marketa Vondrousova she described a moment when her fug of concentration lifted for a second and the scale of it all suddenly hit her all at once – the crowd, the court, the occasion, what it all would mean – and briefly forgot how she was going to hit the ball.
What must it feel like to live in this glare, to sense that tremendous rumbling noise every time you walk to practice or log on to the internet, to stay sane and competent in a world where the walls are constantly trying to collapse in on you?Perhaps Raducanu’s real achievement has been simply to function, to build herself a palace of the mind strong enough to allow her not just to work but to thrive.To know that you’re the last game of the day, and know why, and yet still to put in your greatest ever Wimbledon performance and your best against a top-10 player.To face down everything else out there and still have the strength to face down the most ferocious hitter in the game.And though it was a straight-sets defeat, there was enough here to show the rest of us what she had always believed herself.She saves seven set points in a remarkable 10th game as Sabalenka tries to pummel her to bits.
She breaks, is broken courtesy of a slip and a lethal net cord, loses a heartbreakingly tight breaker.She’s elusive, courageous, clever.It’s past 9pm and Raducanu is now competing with Celebrity Gogglebox and Not Going Out, which has been moved to BBC Two.But of course Sabalenka, too, has added levels to her game.She serves more consistently, gets more revs on her ground strokes, drops more, comes to the net more, thinks her way through matches better.
Above all she possesses what has always been Raducanu’s superpower: the ability to intuit the momentum shift before it happens, to find the point of weakness that can upend the match entirely.Facing points for a 5-1 double break, she finds big first serves, finds the corners, wins five games in a row for the match.Occasionally very smart and very brave people on the internet like to argue that Raducanu is basically some manufactured confidence trick, that it’s somehow possible to win a US Open by dumb fluke.But then along come matches such as this to remind us: actually, no.Emma Raducanu gets a lot of hype because Emma Raducanu is capable of playing a frighteningly high level of tennis.
The only question worth asking is how she can unlock it more frequently,It’s beyond 10pm,The news has been pushed back and Raducanu is now competing with First Dates on Channel 4,She should be pleased, she should be proud, but as she departs she looks crestfallen,And of course it should hurt to come this close, to get so many opportunities and ultimately to fall short.
But when the dust settles she will know that she truly belongs in this company: a primetime performer for a primetime slot.
England v India: third women’s T20 cricket international – as it happened
Here’s Raf’s report of a rollercoaster game:That’s all from me this evening, thanks for tuning in and goodnight.England dropped six catches and collapsed dramatically with the bat but they somehow got the job done. The series stands at 2-1 and the teams head to Manchester on Wednesday for the fourth of this five match series.Here’s stand in captain Tammy Beaumont with the final words:I think that’s what you live for in cricket. As captain, those are the moments you live for
Lauren Filer leads fightback as England beat India to keep series alive
When Nat Sciver-Brunt was named as England captain in April, her teammate Tammy Beaumont might have had cause to feel slight disappointment at being overlooked, given her own success at the helm of Welsh Fire.But at the Oval on Friday evening, with Sciver-Brunt out of the third Twenty20 international against India due to a groin injury, Beaumont finally got the chance to lead the side, and managed a feat that has so far eluded Sciver-Brunt – a win against India, albeit by the skin of their teeth.India had looked to be racing to victory after Shafali Verma smashed 47 from 25 balls and Smriti Mandhana glided her way to a half-century, but after Mandhana top-edged Lauren Filer to mid-on in the 16th over England fought back at the death to seal a narrow five-run win.“Tammy was outstanding today,” her teammate Sophia Dunkley said. “She was really strong with us about backing ourselves and staying in the fight
Pogacar and Vingegaard renew Tour rivalry in tricky and tortuous opening
It was not so long ago that Tadej Pogacar was Jonas Vingegaard’s whipping boy. It came on the brutal Col de la Loze, in July 2023, when the Slovenian, dropped by another violent Vingegaard acceleration, announced wearily into his team radio: “I’m gone, I’m dead.”By last summer, as the recent Netflix series Unchained reveals, the tables had turned. Pogacar barked angry insults at the Dane after Vingegaard refused to make the pace with him on the gravel stage around Troyes. He went on to dominate the race and win his third Tour de France by more than six minutes
‘I was knackered’: Brook’s England heroics take their toll as India seize advantage
England face a battle against both India’s batters and their own bodies as they attempt to keep their opponents’ lead under control on the fourth day at Edgbaston, with Harry Brook – who has spent fewer than 15 of the 253.3 overs so far bowled off the field – describing fatigue unlike any he has experienced in his career as he put together the 303-run partnership with Jamie Smith that rescued the team’s first innings.Brook had scored 157 when he was struck by cramp that ran down “the whole right side” of his body, and added only one more run before he was dismissed by Akash Deep soon after the second new ball had been taken. That precipitated a collapse as England slumped from 387 for five to 407 all out.“I’ve never had it before,” Brook said of the cramping
Hothouse kid Jamie Smith starts as he goes on and changes Test in 20 minutes | Andy Bull
It started in the worst possible way. By the second over of the day England were 84 for five, five hundred runs and a thousand miles behind. Their best batter, Joe Root had just been caught off the ninth ball of the morning, and their captain, Ben Stokes, who has worked so many miracles for them before, had been caught off the 10th, done by a wicked, lifting delivery, nasty, brutish and short, which brushed off his glove on its way through to the keeper.The bowler, Mohammad Siraj, was on a hat-trick, and here comes England’s No 7, Jamie Smith, 24 years old, playing his 19th Test innings.The field was set, the slips were waiting, the crowd was up
England v India: second men’s cricket Test, day three – as it happened
Ali Martin’s report is here so it’s time for me to call it a day. India should still win this but the magic of Stokes’ team keeps you believing in all four results. I hope tomorrow’s another special one.I imagine India won’t be satisfied with setting England anything other than a world-record target. But there’s also the question of time – do they even bother with a declaration tomorrow? Or do they try and get to the fifth morning and toy with England’s distaste of the draw?A reminder that the highest Test score by an England wicketkeeper still belongs to Betty Snowball for her 189 against New Zealand 90 years ago
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