Wimbledon 2025: No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka withstands early challenge from Emma Raducanu to win in straight sets

During a Wimbledon tournament in which four of the top five women’s seeds have already lost before the round of 16, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka prevailed in her third-round match over Emma Raducanu on Friday, 7-6 (6), 6-4.

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Wimbledon 2025: No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka withstands early challenge from Emma Raducanu to win in straight sets
Twice, Raducano appeared to have a set in hand, but Sabalenka didn’t back down

Ian Casselberry
Contributing writer
Jul 5, 2025, 3:36 AM GMT+1

During a Wimbledon tournament in which four of the top five women’s seeds have already lost before the round of 16, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka prevailed in her third-round match over Emma Raducanu on Friday, 7-6 (6), 6-4.

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However, as the score indicates, Sabalenka didn’t dispatch her British opponent easily on home territory. The match was pushed back by nearly an hour as Carlos Alcaraz finished off Jan-Lennard Struff in four sets. But to say that delay affected Sabalenka at the start doesn’t give Raducanu enough credit.

Raducanu went ahead 4-2 in the opening set, winning 10 of her first serves. She particularly frustrated Sabalenka by returning her serve, no matter how hard they were hit, and moving her around the court with slices toward the corners and on the lines.

And as could be expected, Raducanu had loud support from the crowd at Centre Court.

Sabalenka fought her way back to 4-3 as Raducanu appeared to be rattled by a shot that Hawk-Eye ruled in by 0.4 mm. From there, the world No. 1 rallied to go up 5-4. Raducanu also looked as if she hurt her knee while getting her feet tangled on a cross-court return.

Yet rather than buckle after letting Sabalenka come back, she held by saving seven set points and tied the set at 5-5. Raducanu appeared to struggle with her knee but stayed tough and went ahead 6-5. The crowd was eager to see an upset in the making.

Sabalenka was undeterred and shook off the challenge from Raducanu to continue pursuit of her first Wimbledon championship. A lob shot just out of Raducanu’s reach knotted the set at 6-6 and forced a tiebreaker.