Top seed Zheng Qinwen and unseeded American Amanda Anisimova broke new ground with wins in the quarterfinals of the HSBC Championships on Friday. By beating Emma Raducanu, the last British player remaining, and No. 3 seed Emma Navarro, respectively, the two players each advanced to their first career semifinal at a grass-court tournament.
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After breaking Raducanu twice in a 6-2 opening set, top seed Zheng — who won just one match on grass in all of 2024 — came from 3-0 and 4-2 down in the second set against 2021 US Open champion Raducanu, who was treated by the physio in between sets for a back problem, to triumph 6-3, 6-4.
Zheng not only overcame a second-set surge by the 2021 US Open champion, who was buoyed by partisan support from her home crowd, but also some equipment trouble: Slipping and sliding on the grass courts, she changed to a new pair of sneakers to fortify her feet during the comeback.
“It was tricky the second set. … I felt my focus was dropping that moment, and I gave her lot of easy mistakes, especially I remember in my first game the second set, I didn’t put any first serve on court,” Zheng said afterward.
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“Suddenly that was really tough, but I’m just happy I got my focus back. Didn’t wait until the third set. It was a great change for me.”
Zheng will take a 2-0 record into her semifinal against Anisimova, who improved to 4-0 against her fellow American Navarro with a 6-3, 6-3 win in the nightcap.
From 3-3 in the opening set, the match was largely under Anisimova’s control. She won five straight games from that point, and never allowed Navarro a look at a comeback. Under darkening skies as day turned to evening, Anisimova raced to the finish — literally and figuratively — as she finished off victory by turning defense to offense.
‘What a finish!’ Anisimova puts on her track shoes to finish off Navarro
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“I’m so pleased,” Anisimova said. “I’m just extremely happy to be here in the semifinals … Emma is such a tough player; we’ve had some great battles, so I’m really happy to be through this one. In the last two games, I was telling my coach I can’t see anything.
“It was a late one today, so I’m really happy that I was able to play some good tennis towards the end.”
Zheng beat Anisimova twice last year — at the US Open and in Beijing — and both of those victories came from a set down.
