Emma Raducanu soars up world rankings despite being humiliated

Emma Raducanu has shot up to No. 25 in the women’s world rankings despite suffering a heavy defeat in the Transylvania Open final on Saturday. The British tennis star’s dream week in Romania, where her father was born, came to an end after just 63 minutes of play against home favourite Sorana Cirstea.

Raducanu was handed a brutal 6-0 6-2 loss in the showpiece, which marked her first WTA final appearance since winning the 2021 US Open as a qualifier aged just 18. The 23-year-old’s performance dropped considerably from the high level she had demonstrated up to the final, having arrived as the tournament’s top seed. Even so, her strong showing prior to the humiliating final gave her a boost in the world singles rankings, rising from world No. 30 to No. 25. It marks Raducanu’s best ranking since August 2022, when she was the world No. 11 going into her 2022 US Open title defence, before losing in the second round and plummeting to No. 83.

“But honestly, I couldn’t do anything against Sorana today. She was playing incredible tennis and has been all week. I can’t praise her enough, how good she’s been and how nice of a person she is. It’s great to have someone like her around on the tour.”

The new world No. 25 also said: “I think my game has improved. I’ve made progress and I’ve been doing the right work over the past few weeks, so I’m very happy with how my game is developing. Today it was difficult to make a fair assessment but overall I think it’s moving in the right direction. I know there’s still a lot to improve but I’m happy to see some rewards for doing things the right way.”