WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly four years ago, two relatively unknown teenagers found themselves in the US Open championship match. Now, there’s a chance you might see them on Sunday in the Mubadala Citi DC Open final.
Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez, still only 22 and suddenly resurgent, are in a position to reprise that historic meeting.
Washington, D.C.: Draws | Scores | Order of play
But first, we contemplate Saturday’s semifinals, where Raducanu faces Anna Kalinskaya and Leylah Fernandez takes on No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina. Here’s what you need to know:
No. 3 Elena Rybakina vs Leylah Fernandez (not before 2:30 p.m. ET)
Head-to-head: 1-1, with Fernandez winning their most recent match last year in Cincinnati in three sets and Rybakina prevailing earlier in a straight-sets quarterfinal in Doha.
The case for Rybakina: This is her first trip to D.C., but she’s making the most of it. Her 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 5 seed Magdalena Frech was impressive on a number of levels.
Rybakina is now 3-0 against Frech, the player who took down Venus Williams in the second round. After a win over wild card Victoria Mboko in the first round, Rybakina has won all four of her sets.
This is Rybakina’s third semifinal of the season. After losing the first two (to Belinda Bencic and Mirra Andreeva) she defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia on the way to the title in Strasbourg.
Her serve is almost always the weapon that determines the outcome and it was never more true on these fast hard courts in D.C. Rybakina had seven aces against Frech and saved all three of the break points against her.
The case for Fernandez: She showed tremendous resilience in her 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Taylor Townsend.
Toward the end of their 141-minute match in the blazing heat, Fernandez tried to avoid cramping by stopping to stretch. And while Townsend fought off 18 of 23 break points, Fernandez cashed five — one more than Townsend.
This is her first tour-level semifinal since last fall in Hong Kong, but none of the players she beat were ranked inside the Top 75. Here, she took down two players who had already amassed five titles this year. In the first round, she defeated No. 38 Maya Joint, a two-time winner and in the second it was top-seeded Jessica Pegula, the World No. 4.
Fernandez will remember that three-set win over Rybakina fondly because she saved two match points along the way.
Like Raducanu, she’ll have the advantage of playing her quarterfinal match significantly earlier than her opponent.
Anna Kalinskaya vs Emma Raducanu (to follow)
Head-to-head: 0-0
The case for Raducanu: She’s feeling good about herself and her game. With a win on Saturday, she’ll crack the PIF WTA Rankings Top 30 for the first time in three years.
Her 6-4, 7-5 win over Maria Sakkari was a testament to all the hard work she’s been “banking” this year. And she did it in style, coming back to win the last five games of the match.
Raducanu has yet to drop a set — and it’s not like she’s had an easy path. In the first round, it was Marta Kostyuk, when she survived a first-set tiebreak. The second was a widely anticipated first meeting with Naomi Osaka in which Raducanu served brilliantly and broke the four-time Grand Slam champion three times.
This is her best result in three visits to the District of Columbia. She’s a much better player, she said, since she reached last WTA Tour-level semifinal three years ago in Seoul.
“I think I have been a lot more focused and competitive for each point and not being flat or defeated,” Raducanu said. “I think my serve has improved. The last few matches I have been getting a lot more free points. Then also I think just movement of my defensive skills have probably been the biggest improvement.
“I think I’m able to kind of dig out some points and stay in the points and use a bit more hand skills, slice, get an extra ball back.”
That diversity could give her the upper hand against Kalinskaya.
The case for Kalinskaya: She seems to love this venue, where she made the semifinals six years ago as a qualifier and has three quarterfinal berths (at least) in three appearances.
The 6-3, 7-5 victory over the No. 19-ranked Tauson was her 20th victory over a Top 10 player, the most recent being a decision in Strasbourg over No. 3 Jessica Pegula.
Like Raducanu, Kalinskaya is unseeded and has yet to drop a set.
Kalinskaya took out two seeds, No. 4 Tauson and, in the second round, No. 8 Magda Linette. Tauson was leading the tour in aces coming into the tournament, but Kalinskaya matched her with four aces and broke her serve six times, while saving three of six break-point opportunities against her.
She’s playing with confidence, looking to win her first career WTA 500 after losing in the 2024 Berlin final.