The king may have departed, but Wimbledon has been left saluting its Centre Court queen as Emma Raducanu pulled off surely her best win since her incredible US Open triumph.
The 21-year-old Briton, who’s endured so many injury setbacks since her outlandish 2021 victory as a qualifier at Flushing Meadows, looks ready to fill a void left with Andy Murray’s farewell by the way she outplayed No.9 seed Maria Sakkari 6-2 6-3 to reach the last-16 on Friday.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Wimbledon crowd erupts Emma Raducanu defeats Maria Sakkari.
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It conjured up some uncanny memories of that fabulous run in New York when Raducanu, then 18, powered past Sakkari in the semi-final for the loss of exactly the same amount of games.
Could a repeat run be on the cards? It may be too early to suggest that, but there were signs here that Raducanu, after all her setbacks, is now delivering on that rare talent again.
Those setbacks included having surgery on both her wrists and ankle in 2023.
The Centre Court denizens, still feeling life may never be quite the same without their blessed Andy after his farewell celebrations on Thursday night, will certainly be hoping so as the first signs of Emma fever since her breakthrough run to the 2021 last-16 at SW19 began to sweep the citadel again.
Having never beaten a top-10 player in her career, even during her US Open triumph, Raducanu has now accounted for two in a fortnight, after knocking out Jessica Pegula in Eastbourne.
She’ll now be a big favourite to reach the quarter-finals too, up against New Zealand’s surprise packet Lulu Sun, even if nobody will be more aware than Raducanu of what an inspired qualifier can do.
The victory, which guarantees her place back in the world’s top 100, left Raducanu beaming with joy.
“I think today was really up there with the most fun I’ve had on a tennis court,” she told the crowd.
Sakkari, who’s never got past the third round at Wimbledon, struggled from the start, handing Raducanu an immediate break of serve and the Briton never looked back, conjuring up some brilliant shots, like the inch-perfect lob which propelled her into a 5-2 lead.
Her victory sent the crowd into raptures and social media lit up.
“Emma Raducanu …. smiling ear to ear. The crowd is going absolutely insane. Brings you straight back to the US Open. Just a young woman who loves to play tennis,” popular account The Tennis Letter said.
“(She) will be back in the top 100 when the new rankings come out.
“One year after having three surgeries at the same time… this is something special. Today, she’s back to living her dream with the support of a nation behind her. So deserved,”
There was to be no British joy elsewhere, though, as the dream run of home qualifier Sonay Kartal, who used to play Raducanu as a 12-year-old, was dismantled ruthlessly by No.2 seed Coco Gauff 6-4 6-0.
Gauff got tested by the world No.298 initially but the US Open champion ran away with the second set to set up a fourth-round match with fellow American 19th seed Emma Navarro, who defeated Diana Shnaider.
French Open finalist Jasmine Paolini has quickly established herself as a showcourt favourite at Wimbledon and received a rapturous ovation as she continued the Italian success story at this year’s event by outplaying former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu 7-6 (7-4) 6-1.
She’s the first Italian woman to make the second week at each of the first three grand slams in a single year.