Zheng escapes Kessler, will meet Raducanu in Queen's quarterfinal
Top seed Zheng Qinwen escaped American McCartney Kessler at the HSBC Championships at the Queen's Club on Thursday, rallying from 4-1 down in the third set in an eventual 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 triumph.
With her 2025 grass-court debut, Zheng has already matched the entire win total she posted on the surface last year. But she was forced into doing things the hard way in 2 hours and 11 minutes. After Zheng won four of the last five games of the opening set, Kessler dug in at crunch time of the second, and put herself on the precipice of a second career Top 10 win after she defeated Coco Gauff earlier this year in Dubai by winning six of seven games.
But after Kessler went eight straight service games without facing a break point, she only held once more from that point.
"I was really nervous ... and it wasn't easy for me in the first match," Zheng said afterwards. "It was tricky because suddenly, the score went so fast, and when I realized I was 1-4 down, I put my focus there and tried to fight back. She played really well in the second set; it was really difficult for me, but I think, I hope, I'm going to get better on grass courts."
Zheng will next meet a player who has a high degree of familiarity with the English lawns: home hope Emma Raducanu, who defeated Rebecca Sramkova 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the last eight at a WTA grass-court event for the third time. All three of those have come in the last year.
Against Sramkova -- who beat reigning Wimbledon winner Barbora Krejcikova in the first round -- 2021 US Open champion Raducanu stormed out to a 5-0 lead in the first set, but failed to convert two set points in the next game. The Slovak quickly captured four straight games, but Raducanu reset with a love hold to finally forge forward -- momentum she took into the second set against an increasingly frustrated Sramkova.
After a performance that she confessed "wasn't [her] cleanest," Raducanu said she was happy with how she refocused to not allow the first set to get away.
She has never faced Zheng before on the Hologic WTA Tour, but will bid for her fourth career Top 10 win against the Olympic champion.
"Qinwen's obviously Top 10 in the world, had an amazing year, great last couple of tournaments last few months on the tour, and I think she's very dangerous, top seed, definitely the favorite," Raducanu said. "But I think I have had two good matches here, and looking forward ... I'm just trying to stay as focused as I possibly can."
