Emma Raducanu +26 in WTA Rankings as she secures milestone result at Nottingham Open

Emma Raducanu has reached her first grass-court quarter-final at WTA Tour level following another impressive display at the Nottingham Open as she eased past Daria Snigur.

Having skipped the French Open, the start of the grass court season was seen as a make-or-break campaign for Raducanu and so far it has very much been a “make” situation for the 2021 US Open winner as she notched up back-to-back wins.

After defeating qualifier Ena Shibahara in the first round, Raducanu followed it up with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over world No 127 Snigur in the second round.

Former Wimbledon junior champion Snigur started the tournament more than 100 places above the British player in the WTA Rankings, but Raducanu is now set to surge 26 from No 209 to No 183 following her run to the quarter-final.

And there could be further joy if she wins her quarter-final match as she could jump another 19 spots to No 164.

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The first set wasn’t quite the walk in the park that the scoreline suggests as Raducanu got off to a nightmare start as she was broken in game two, but she won the next six games to take the set before breaking twice in the second set.

“It was an extremely tricky match. Honestly, I knew from before I came on I need to be on it today because Daria is a really good player and grass court player especially,” Raducanu said after her win. “She won junior Wimbledon, I played with her in the juniors growing up so I know how tricky she is to play.

“I’m very happy with how I managed it, especially in the beginning, and came through.”

The result is a maiden quarter-final on grass on the WTA Tour and she will meet either fellow Brit Francesca Jones or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the semi-final.

Raducanu has been working with a different coach in Nottingham as she has roped in former professional tennis player Jane O’Donoghue for the event.

The partnership is certainly off to a good start and it is a welcome return to form for the 21-year-old at the same place she kick-started her career back three years ago.

Back in 2021, Raducanu made her WTA debut in Nottingham and, although she lost in the first round, it all clicked after that as she eventually received a Wimbledon wildcard and reached the fourth round at SW19 before going on to win the US Open later in the year.

“I would say Nottingham is a special place in my career,” she said earlier this week. “I am fond of it because it’s where everything started, my first WTA match, then I played the 100k the week after and that is where I got my Wimbledon wildcard because I didn’t get it in the first announcement.

“I had to win two matches in the 100k and then I got the wildcard and made fourth round at Wimbledon. So it is a very special place, if I hadn’t got that wildcard who knows what would have happened, or if the US would have happened.

“So it is a compilation of small moments where you don’t know what is going to happen. It is obviously different coming back here having won the US Open than before.”