Emma Raducanu targeted as British star pulls off career-best win and moves up rankings

Emma Raducanu was caught up in a social media storm after British star Sonay Kartal shocked the tennis world by beating Mirra Andreeva. Before her clash with the Russian, Kartal was the British No. 3, just behind Katie Boulter.

The 23-year-old faced Andreeva in the round of 16 of the China Open in Beijing. Her Russian opponent was the heavy favourite and the fourth highest seed in the field. Kartal took the first set 7-5 but slipped up in the second when Andreeva broke her serve twice to win 6-2. The Brit found her best form in the deciding set, breaking serve again on her way to sealing the third set 7-5. But after Kartal surpassed Boulter in the rankings, one tennis account mentioned Raducanu, warningthe US Open winner her British counterpart is on her way.

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The British Tennis Players On Tour X account wrote: "Sonay Kartal has now overtaken Katie Boulter to become the new British No. 2. There's no doubt she'll now be hunting down Emma Raducanu for that British Number One spot now."

One commenter on X took issue with the comment, writing: "So you cant celebrate Kartal's victory without bringing Emma Raducanu down. British people are so exhausting" to which, the page replied: "How is this bringing Emma down exactly? I'm saying how we have friendly competition between the Brits for that number one spot, which is a good thing!"

Raducanu also competed in the China Open. She overcame Spanish star Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-3 before losing to Jessica Pegula 3-6, 7-6 (11-9), 6-0. The US Open winner will be competing at the Wuhan Open, which begins on October 6.

Kartal and Boulter will also be hoping to join her, but they will need to go through qualifying in order to get to the main draw. While Kartal is enjoying a great campaign, Raducanu is currently World No. 32, her highest ranking since August 2022.

Raducanu would have been disappointed by her third set against Pegula, but she did hold a match point over the American in the tiebreak. She also recently reached the third round of the Cincinatti Open, where she was knocked out by World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

Their three hour contest saw the Belarusian prevail 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in an epic encounter in the USA. Many fans will remember the match for the staggering 23-minute service game in the final set which saw Raducanu be taken to deuce 13 times.

She had to save four break points before serving out the contest. Raducanu also reached the third round of the US Open and the National Bank Open.