Brit favorite Raducanu wins battle of Emmas

By Harvey Fialkov

MIAMI GARDENS – After Emma Raducanu crushed Emma Navarro’s second serve for an inside-out forehand winner to clinch the longest match of the Miami Open presented by Itau, she simply let go of her racket and clasped her hand to her forehead in disbelief.

It conjured up her emotional reaction when she buzzed through 10 matches, including qualifiers, without dropping a set to win the 2021 US Open at 19. Although, this time Raducanu didn’t collapse on the court in a celebratory heap.

There were more ups and downs to this match than the press-box elevator as the two took turns breaking each other’s serves. In the 2-hour, 53-minute match on a packed Grandstand, the gals combined for 10 service breaks, including six by Navarro.

It was a break-fast without the bagels.

Raducanu, 22, who had dropped six of her previous seven matches before this tournament, has seen her ranking plummet from 10 after her US Open victory to 60^th. This was the third Top 10 win of her career with the other two over Jessica Pegula at Eastbourne and Maria Sakkari at Wimbledon, both in 2024.

It was extra emotional because Raducanu, who has gone through a litany of coaches, had to deal with a stalker situation during a match in the Dubai Masters 1000 earlier this month that left her cowering in fear behind the chair umpire’s elevated chair.

“It was a lot of emotions when I won [today],’’ said Raducanu, who’s being ushered around the grounds by a phalanx of bodyguards. “I know I won the US Open, but I think having been through so much in the last few years, it’s like the wins now mean so much more.

“I would say not necessarily more in terms of magnitude, but I would say emotionally, just a lot more aware of all of the suffering as well, because when I won the US Open, I just won 10 matches in straight sets. I didn’t have the losses, the downs, the months of losing streaks. I think to come out of it now, I’d say it means a lot more than certain matches at the US Open.

“It’s taken a lot out of me. But I’m just so happy to be fighting here, and all the wins here just give me extra fuel, extra energy.”

Besides sharing a first name, these two young ladies are mirror-images on the court. Neither possesses an overwhelming serve, but both can crack winners off both sides from the baseline and run forever. Both have earned approximately $4 million on the court, both are 5-foot-7 and both right-handed with a two-hand backhand.

 Raducanu served for the match at 5-3 but Navarro, 23, who has competed in and won the most three-set matches in 2024 and ’25 (won 24 of 35) wouldn’t bend. Navarro served at 4-5, 0-30 and again Raducanu couldn’t close the deal.

The difference in both tiebreakers was that Raducanu went for winners while Navarro, a backboard from Charleston, S.C., was a tad too defensive. Navarro, seeded eighth but ranked 10^th, will fall out of the Top 10 on Monday.

“At 6-all in both sets, I actually was like, if I’m going to go out, I’m not going to let her take me out,’’ said Raducanu, who smacked 38 winners. “At least I’ll put everything on it.”

Raducanu was flashing that million-dollar smile as she detailed her fun-filled warmup routine of learning how to throw a football, kicking a soccer ball, playing cornhole, golfing and tossing a frisbee.

“I’ve been working on tightening the spiral a little bit,’’ she laughed.

Here at the Miami Dolphins home, they’re in the market for a backup quarterback.

Raducanu will play three-time All-American University of Florida Gator, 48^th-ranked McCartney Kessler, 25, in the third round.

American Jessica Pegula (4^th), whose family owns the Buffalo Bills, longtime rivals of the Dolphins – downed Croatian American Bernarda Pera, 6-4, 6-4. Also advancing was fifth-seeded Madison Keys, who grew up in Boca Raton but now lives in Orlando with husband/coach Bjorn Fratangelo, after a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Armenian Elina Avanesyan.

Keys, still riding the high of her Australian Open title, had 29 winners, but 35 unforced errors in a 78-minute victory and will next play 19-year-old, 140^th-ranked Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.

Second-seeded Iga Swiatek, the 2022 Miami Open champion, who was knocked out of the previous two Masters 1000 events by 17-year-old Russian phenom Mirra Andreeva, advanced to the third round with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 74^th-ranked Caroline Garcia of France on Stadium Court to open up one of the most exciting days of matchups in the tournament’s history.

Since winning the WTA Finals in 2022, Garcia fell to 1-10 against Top 10 opponents, including four losses to the 23-year-old Pole.

“The tactics were kind of the same, because our game styles are the same,’’ said Swiatek, who routed Garcia 6-2, 6-0 in a second-round match at Indian Wells earlier this month. “But for sure the way you play changes a bit. Yeah, I mean, the ball bounces lower here, for sure, and the air also is not that dynamic. I feel like I have to be ready for a little bit faster game and be even lower on my legs.”

Swiatek hasn’t won a title since snatching her fifth Grand Slam at the French Open last June.

Andreeva, who is coming off consecutive Masters 1000 titles at Dubai and Indian Wells to soar to 6^th in the world, recorded her 13^th straight victory, 6-0, 6-2 over 52^nd-ranked fellow Russian Veronika Kudermetova in her Miami Open debut.

Andreeva isn’t the only teenage sensation making a splash on tour as 18-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko entered Miami with an incredible 27-1 (now 28-2) match record and five ITF (minor league) titles across Europe and the United States to earn a wild card into her first WTA event of any kind. She won her first 25 matches in straight sets.

The lanky, hard-hitting teen, who resembled Venus Williams stroke-wise, took out feisty Colombian Camila Osorio in three sets on Wednesday. On Court 1, Mboko had 10^th-seeded Paula Badosa on the ropes, but the Spaniard’s experience and defensive skills enabled the former No. 2 to pull out the slugfest, 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (3).

Mboko said earlier this week that for the first time in three years, she’s playing without knee pain, which has helped the Charlotte, N.C. native catapult up the ranks from 333^rd to 162.

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina won the battle of mothers, 6-1, 6-2 over Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. Three-time Miami Open champion Victoria Azarenka retired after losing the first 6-0 with a sore neck, allowing 15^th-seeded Czech Karolina Muchova to advance.