The world number 55 and the 6th seed dominated the young Brit in a match that didn’t even last an hour.
Marta Kostyuk is into the semifinals of the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca after beating the US Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-1 in 57 minutes serving four aces and winning 74% of her first-serve points.
The two had previously met in juniors and twice on the pro tour with each getting a win but the day belonged to the Ukrainian who looked unbeatable and super powerful with her groundstrokes.
“It’s my third semifinal this year and I am just trying to focus on the next match and it’s going to be a big fight and I am really hoping for that and it’s a great feeling and I am just focusing on the next one.”
Kostyuk started the match putting immense pressure on the Raducanu serve as she broke in the first game of the match and it stayed on serve until 4-2 when the Ukrainian managed to go up a double break and served out the first set.
The number six seed kept the momentum going into the second set and once again broke serve in the first game of the set. At 3-1 turned that break of serve into a double break for a 4-1 lead.
It took four match points before the world number 55 was able to seal the deal and book a spot in the final four and a match against Simona Halep on Saturday.
After the match in her post-match press conference, Kostyuk said she used comments from Raducanu as fuel for the match today.
“When I read those comments saying I was destroying her it gave me so much strength and I was still very focused and I didn’t know what to expect and I needed to figure out quickly what to do and I think I did pretty well.”
Kostyuk and Halep have met on one previous occasion and that was in Indian Wells a couple of weeks ago with the Romanian winning the match 7-6, 6-1.
