Raducanu overcame a fall and injury scare, then reached the Queen’s Club semifinals by beating Rakhimova
Emma Raducanu advanced to the semifinals of the WTA section of the HSBC Championships tournament at London’s Queen’s Club after defeating Kamilla Rakhimova 6:3, 7:5 in a quarterfinal played on Saturday, 13 June 2026. According to the organizers’ announcement, it was the first of two Saturday appearances Raducanu had to complete because of earlier schedule disruptions, and the British tennis player, despite an awkward fall and medical uncertainty, managed to finish the job in two sets. The match was played on the grass courts of Queen’s Club in London, at a tournament that this season is being held as a WTA 500 event and is part of the preparations for Wimbledon. After the match, the LTA confirmed that Raducanu defeated Rakhimova 6:3, 7:5, and then returned to the court the same day and beat Iva Jovic 6:2, 6:2 in the semifinal. That outcome added extra weight to her quarterfinal victory because getting past Rakhimova opened the path to the first WTA 500 final of her career.
A two-set victory after problems in the later stages of the match
Raducanu started well against Rakhimova and took the first set 6:3, but the key part of the match came in the second set. According to The Guardian’s report from Queen’s Club, Raducanu at one point led 6:3 and 3:1, and then slipped on the grass and grabbed her left thigh, raising concern about whether she would be able to continue. The LTA described the incident as an injury uncertainty ahead of the later semifinal encounter, but Raducanu stayed in the match after the fall and found a way to maintain control of the score. Rakhimova managed to restore some pressure in the second set and complicate the finish, but Raducanu was steadier in the decisive games. The final 7:5 in the second set showed that the match was not routine, even though it ended without the winner losing a set.
According to the available reports, the most important element of the quarterfinal was Raducanu’s ability not to allow a complete turnaround after the physical problem. The grass surface in London traditionally demands quick reactions, precise footwork and short adjustments after a low bounce, and the fall in the second set could have changed the dynamic of the encounter. Rakhimova had a chance to exploit the moment of uncertainty, especially because she had entered the tournament as a lucky loser and had already shown resilience in difficult matches. Still, Raducanu retained enough aggression in the rallies and returned to her basic game plan. According to the LTA, that victory was the prelude to her later appearance against sixth seed Iva Jovic, making Saturday at Queen’s Club one of the most important days of her season.
A compressed schedule after rain and postponed matches
The quarterfinal between Raducanu and Rakhimova had additional context because of the tournament schedule. The LTA had announced the previous day that Raducanu and Rakhimova had to postpone their quarterfinal match until Saturday because the program had been disrupted by poor weather conditions and a lack of light. The same report stated that the fourth day of the tournament passed without play because of rain in west London, further compressing the schedule for the closing stages of the women’s part of the competition. Raducanu therefore first had to complete the quarterfinal task against Rakhimova, and then prepare for a possible semifinal duel on the same day. That detail matters because victory in the first match was not only a passage into the next round, but also a test of physical endurance in conditions rarely considered ideal for a player who had just had trouble with her leg.
In a later review of her Saturday program, the LTA reported that Raducanu herself described playing two matches in one day as a physical challenge. In such circumstances, the assessment of her team about whether she could continue the tournament without greater risk was also important. According to the organizers’ announcement, after the victory over Rakhimova, Raducanu later looked free of visible consequences against Jovic and played one of her best matches of the week. That does not change the fact that the quarterfinal was the turning point of the day, because any more serious consequence of the fall could have ended her appearance before the semifinal. Instead, the 6:3, 7:5 victory remained recorded as the match in which she survived the most dangerous physical moment of the tournament and kept her path toward the final stages.
Rakhimova took advantage of the lucky loser opportunity, but did not complete the upset
Kamilla Rakhimova entered this part of the tournament with lucky loser status, which means she received a place in the main draw after a defeat in qualifying or changes in the main draw. According to her WTA profile, Rakhimova plays under the flag of Uzbekistan, is 24 years old, plays right-handed and has reached No. 60 in the singles rankings in her career. The WTA statistics for the tournament week state that on 8 June 2026 she was the world No. 78 in singles, making her quarterfinal appearance a valuable result in a strong WTA 500 environment. The LTA had earlier reported that she reached the quarterfinal with a 5:7, 6:1, 7:5 victory over Harriet Dart in a second-round match that lasted almost three hours. That path showed that Rakhimova in London was not a random passer-by, but a player capable of staying in long and changeable matches.
Against Raducanu, Rakhimova was most threatening in the period after her opponent’s fall, when the second set became significantly more uncertain. Still, she did not manage to turn the pressure into a third set, which is often crucial on grass because momentum can change quickly through a single service game or several aggressive returns. According to official WTA data, Rakhimova has won WTA 125 titles in singles during her career, and she also has tour-level successes in doubles, confirming the breadth of her competitive experience. At Queen’s Club, from that position, she tried to exploit an open section of the draw, but in the closing stages of the quarterfinal she ran into an opponent who, despite problems, managed to play the key points. The 6:3, 7:5 defeat does not erase her good week, but it clearly shows how thin the line is at this level between an upset and a straight-sets defeat.
Queen’s Club as an important stop in the grass-court season
The HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club in 2026 are being held as a two-week event that includes a women’s WTA 500 and a men’s ATP 500 tournament. According to LTA information, the women’s main draw is played from 8 to 14 June, while the men’s main draw follows from 15 to 21 June. The official Queen’s Club website states that HSBC has been the tournament’s title sponsor since 2025, and that the LTA is the owner and organizer of the competition. In its tournament profile, the WTA emphasized that the women’s tour returned to Queen’s Club at WTA 500 level after more than half a century, giving the tournament an additional place in the calendar of preparations for Wimbledon. The LTA also states that in 2025 Tatjana Maria, by defeating Amanda Anisimova, became the first WTA champion at Queen’s Club in 52 years.
That context explains why Raducanu’s result has broader significance than a single quarterfinal victory. Queen’s Club is historically one of the most recognizable grass-court competitions in London, and according to the club’s official website, numerous Wimbledon champions and major names in professional tennis have played there since 1979. The return of the women’s tournament gives players additional visibility in the week immediately before Wimbledon, when form on grass carries particular weight. For Raducanu, who grew up in London and whose relationship with the home crowd is often an important part of the sporting narrative, Queen’s Club carries an additional emotional dimension. Still, from a sporting perspective, the most important fact remains that on grass she linked victories together and, through the quarterfinal, found an answer to a physical and tactical problem.
Raducanu seeks continuity after seasons interrupted by injuries
Raducanu’s WTA profile states that she was born in 2002 in Toronto, that she represents Great Britain and that in 2021 she won the US Open, becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title. The same source also records that in 2026 she played the final in Cluj-Napoca, showing that this season she again had deeper tournament runs. Her career after the US Open has often been marked by interruptions, changes of rhythm and physical problems, and the WTA career overview states that in 2023 she ended her season after Stuttgart and underwent minor operations on both wrists and an ankle. For that reason, every successful run of matches at a high level has special importance in assessing her return to stability. The victory over Rakhimova is therefore not only a result in one quarterfinal, but also part of a broader search for competitive continuity.
According to WTA data available during the tournament, Raducanu was the world No. 42 before this week, and at Queen’s Club she played without seeded status. The LTA reported that in the first round she convincingly defeated Anna Blinkova 6:0, 6:3, and then in the second round beat seventh seed Sorana Cirstea 6:4, 6:2. Before the quarterfinal, she had thus already shown that the conditions in London suited her and that she could impose aggressive play on a fast surface. Rakhimova, on the other hand, entered the match under different pressure, as a player who had already come through a demanding path and did not have the status of favorite. Precisely for that reason, the encounter turned into a test of Raducanu’s ability to confirm the role of a player with a bigger result behind her, while at the same time having to prove her physical reliability all over again.
The semifinal on the same day further highlighted the value of the quarterfinal
After the victory over Rakhimova, Raducanu returned to the court in the evening part of the program and, according to the LTA, defeated sixth seed Iva Jovic 6:2, 6:2. The organizer stated that she thereby reached the first WTA 500 final of her career and her first final on grass. The LTA also announced that throughout the week up to the final she had not lost a set, which further places the victory over Rakhimova within a series of very efficient performances. In the semifinal, according to the same source, she played much more freely than might have been expected after the injury uncertainty from the earlier match. That contrast between concern in the quarterfinal and authority in the semifinal is one of the main sporting stories of her appearance in London.
According to the LTA, after reaching the final, Raducanu said that playing at Queen’s Club in front of the crowd meant an enormous amount to her and emphasized the role of support and of her own team. Although such statements carry emotional weight, the competitive framework remains clear: the victory over Rakhimova was a necessary step toward the final, but also a match in which she had to show resilience before she could raise her level of play again. In the final she is set to face Donna Vekić, the Croatian tennis player who appeared in London as a lucky loser and, according to the LTA, defeated Katie Boulter 6:1, 6:3 in the semifinal. The organizer announced that the final between Raducanu and Vekić was scheduled for Sunday, 14 June, at 13:30 local time. According to the information available at the time the article was prepared, that match is the first head-to-head meeting between the two players.
What the victory means ahead of Wimbledon
Raducanu’s passage through the Queen’s Club quarterfinal comes in the part of the season when attention traditionally turns to grass-court tournaments and Wimbledon. The WTA and LTA describe the London event as an important part of the grass-court section of the calendar, and results from Queen’s Club are often viewed as an indicator of adaptation to faster conditions. For Raducanu, the victory against Rakhimova is particularly important because it came in a match in which the pressure of a home appearance, a postponed schedule, a physical problem and the need to recover quickly for a second match on the same day all came together. Such conditions do not provide a final answer to the question of her form for Wimbledon, but they give a strong signal that on grass she can again play effectively and with competitive maturity. According to official tournament announcements, she reached the final without losing a set, a fact that will carry weight in assessments of her form ahead of the continuation of the grass-court season.
For Rakhimova, the quarterfinal defeat means the end of a good week in which she came from lucky loser status to the last eight. For Raducanu, however, the 6:3, 7:5 victory remains the match that changed the direction of Saturday’s program and enabled her to take another step on the same day. In a sporting sense, the most important thing is that after the fall in the second set she managed to maintain enough quality for the closing stages, instead of allowing the encounter to turn into a third set and additional exhaustion. According to the LTA, the later place in the final brought her one victory away from her first WTA title since the 2021 US Open. At Queen’s Club, the quarterfinal victory over Rakhimova thus became more than a line in the results: it was a test of resilience, a moment of risk control and the foundation for the biggest result of her week in London.
Sources:
- LTA – results and daily updates from the HSBC Championships 2026, including Raducanu’s victory over Rakhimova and her later progress to the final (link)
- LTA – report on Emma Raducanu reaching the Queen’s Club final and the context of her Saturday program (link)
- WTA – official results page of the HSBC Championships 2026 at Queen’s Club (link)
- WTA – official HSBC Championships 2026 draw and data on the stages of the competition (link)
- WTA – Emma Raducanu profile with biographical data, ranking and career overview (link)
- WTA – Kamilla Rakhimova profile with biographical data, career results and statistics (link)
- The Queen’s Club – official description of the HSBC Championships tournament and the organizational framework of the competition (link)
- The Guardian – report from Queen’s Club on Raducanu’s fall, thigh problem and later progress to the final (link)