Emma Raducanu injury scare precedes Queen's quarter-final exit to Qinwen Zheng

British number one Emma Raducanu survived an injury scare but fell to a straight-sets loss to Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng in the quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championships.

The 22-year-old had breezed past Cristina Bucsa and Rebecca Sramkova to set up a tantalising showdown with Zheng and also overtake Katie Boulter at the top of the British tennis rankings.

However, despite initially holding her own against the top seed, Raducanu was condemned to a 2-6 4-6 loss in one hour and 49 minutes to end the British interest in the singles event.

Following a pair of tricky holds for both women to start the match, Zheng reeled off a four-game winning sequence to convincingly clinch the opening set, after which Raducanu trudged off the court for a medical timeout.

The Briton's back appeared to be troubling her, but she nevertheless came out all guns blazing after the restart, stunning her Chinese foe with a double break for a 3-0 lead.

Zheng immediately earned one break back, though, and the world number five quickly regained control of proceedings, levelling at 4-4 and forcing Raducanu to serve to stay in the contest.

The British number one heroically beat away three match points in that 10th game, but the fourth time was the charm for Zheng, who benefitted from seven Raducanu double faults on the day and will face either Emma Navarro or Amanda Anisimova in the semi-finals.

Written by
Ben Knapton