Emma Raducanu inches closer to WTA top 10 with Stuttgart run
Emma Raducanu has secured a new career-high ranking of world number 11 by making it to the last eight of the WTA 500 Stuttgart Open.
The Brit downed home talent Tamara Korpatsch 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 to set up a meeting with world number one and ‘Sunshine Double’ champion Iga Swiatek.
While that encounter will be a tough task for Raducanu, her victory over Korpatsch sees her overtake Jelena Ostapenko in the live WTA ranking, leading the Latvian by a slender 17 ranking points to sit in 11th place, just one spot off the top 10.
In November last year, Raducanu became just the fifth British woman ever to breach the top 20 of the WTA singles rankings, following in the footsteps of Virginia Wade, Sue Barker, Jo Durie and Johanna Konta.
Should the 19-year-old break the top 10, she would also be the fifth British woman ever to do so, as all four of those women achieved the same feat, with all of them peaking inside the top five.
Only the 5⃣th British woman to break into the @WTA top 2⃣0⃣#BackTheBrits ?? pic.twitter.com/7QWlQsEnJX
— LTA (@the_LTA) November 8, 2021
The first of those women, Wade, reached the highest singles ranking level ever achieved by a British woman, peaking at world number two in November 1975.
That means that should Raducanu eventually go on to top the WTA rankings, she would be the first British woman and just the fourth Brit to ever top the singles or doubles rankings, man or woman.
However, Raducanu has a long way to go yet to conquer the women’s rankings, especially with a player like Swiatek currently topping the ladder.
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