Emma Raducanu brushed off treatment for a suspected foot injury to defeat China’s Yue Yuan in straight sets 6-4 6-3 to progress to the Korea Open quarter-finals. 

Victory means she will now face No 1 seed Daria Kasatkina in the final eight.

Speaking about her performance, Raducanu said in her on-court interview: “I think my key to success today is trying to let go of any frustration that happened.

“Closing out the match I had a lot of match points and couldn’t convert. [It was about] just staying focused and breaking in that last game.”

After a nervy opening hold through deuce, Raducanu settled to earn the first break of the contest and move 2-1 ahead courtesy of some superb baseline play.

Yet Yuan showed guts to break straight back and then dug in to save break points for key holds to move 3-2 and then 4-3 up.

The next time Raducanu had the chance to break, she took it with aplomb via a crosscourt backhand winner, though, holding serve thereafter to claim the opening set 6-4 after medical treatment.

The Brit kicked on to break Yuan in the first game of the second set, holding and then breaking her Chinese opponent again for a commanding 3-0 advantage.

Yuan did break Raducanu back once, but the latter produced a tough hold through deuce to get to 4-2 and then broke Yuan again for 5-2, bringing up the chance to serve for the match.

Having failed to take four match points, Raducanu then had to save two break points before bringing up a fifth match point. Yuan hit a superb winner to avert it, though.

A third break point in the game then had to be saved by a Raducanu ace, bringing the game to a seventh deuce, only for a double fault to open the door for Yuan to finally break and end the game, crushing a forehand winner.

Raducanu was not to be denied, however, breaking Yuan to 15 in the Chinese player’s next service game to clinch her quarter-final place via her seventh match point opportunity.

World No 13 Kasatkina defeated American Hailey Baptiste 6-4 6-2 to set up a showdown with Raducanu on Friday with a spot in the semi-finals up for grabs – live on Sky Sports Tennis from 6am.

Raducanu working on her service technique

Raducanu’s serves helped her reach a fifth WTA quarter-final this year.

She told the WTA website afterwards: “If you watch my serve over the past few months, since the clay season it’s gone through a lot of iterations in terms of swing.

“In general, if you play a lot of tournaments, things move out of place without you really realising, and then it’s harder to get the natural feeling back.

“We’ve been working hard the last week looking at the swing, and which swing suits me best. It’s been pretty big changes, it’s not like we’re just changing the ball placement.

“Me and my coach decided we were going to take a risk and we were going to tweak things. We know it might not pay off short term.

“But one thing I do back myself on is I pick things up pretty quickly. In the first match it didn’t transfer yet, but today it definitely did.

“I just have to think bigger picture. My goals are finishing this season strong but inevitably to set myself up in the best way possible for next year, because next year I really want to hit the ground running.”

What’s coming up on Sky Sports Tennis in September?

• Korea Open – WTA 500 (September 16-22 – with Emma Raducanu in action)
• Thailand Open – WTA 250 (September 16-22)
• Chengdu Open – ATP 250 (September 17-24)
• Hangzhou Open – ATP 250 (September 18-24)
• Japan Open – ATP 500 (September 25-October 1)
• China Open – ATP 500 (September 26-October 2)
• China Open – WTA 1000 (September 25-October 6 – with Emma Raducanu in action)

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