Emma Raducanu thrashes Victoria Azarenka to complete magical 24 hours in Cincinnati
The 19-year-old also thrashed Serena Williams in the previous round and will face seventh seed Jennifer Pegula next
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Your support makes all the difference.Emma Raducanu slayed her second former grand slam champion in as many days as she destroyed Victoria Azarenka in Cincinnati.
Less than 16 hours after she dumped Serena Williams out of the Western and Southern Open with a 6-4 6-0 victory she was at it again with an even more dominant 6-0 6-2 win in just over an hour.
Both of her opponents are nearing the end of their careers, but the manner of the victory for Raducanu reinforced how strong her future will be as she played confidently and with control.
The 19-year-old will definitely face a tougher encounter in the last 16 as she faces seventh seed Jennifer Pegula.
“I was playing a great match for sure and to play Vika I had to stay focused throughout,” she said during her on-court interview.
“In the second set I could feel the important moments and a couple of turning points that could have made the second set really difficult.
“I am really pleased with how I dug in and serving it out in that last game was really difficult.
“It was another honour to play Vika, she has won so many championships and slams, so it was a great honour to be out here.
“I have realised in the last year, people are going to talk whatever you do and maybe things I do are more amplified because of my situation.
“I just learned to really zone in internally and today and yesterday, I don’t really show any emotion. I didn’t let myself get too high or too low and that definitely helped.”
Having been ruthless in seeing off Williams on Tuesday night, Raducanu quickly found her groove and punished a wayward Azarenka.
The teenager brought her powerful A-game to court and won the first set in just 26 minutes.
She hit a flurry of winners and allowed Azarenka just 13 points as she racked up a second successive bagel.
A toilet break could not stem the tide for Azarenka, who was error prone and the US Open champion reeled off four more games to move within touch of victory.
The Belarusian, who was the champion of this tournament in 2020 when it was played on the site of the US Open, finally registered her first game at the 11th attempt when she held serve.
There was to be no spectacular comeback, though, as the Brit remained solid and raced to victory in less than an hour.
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