Embed from Getty Images<\/a> <\/p>\n\u201cIt means everything be doing this here at Queen\u2019s,\u201d Raducanu said in her on-court interview. \u201cThe whole day has been electric.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week has been incredible, I really enjoy playing here and that shows in my tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk any British player and they would love to lift the title here. We\u2019ve been through some tough moments in the last few months but have been putting in the hard work and I want to thank my team for helping me get into the final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucky loser Vekic powered into her first Tour-level final since her run to the 2024 Paris Olympics gold-medal match where she fell to China\u2019s Zheng Qinwen. Vekic, who gained entry into the Queen\u2019s Club main draw after fifth-seeded Marta Kostyuk withdrew,\u00a0 is the first lucky loser to reach the Queen\u2019s Club final.<\/p>\n
Reuniting with coach Andrew Richardson, who guided her to the 2021 US Open championship, Raducanu has not dropped a set in four tournament victories\u2014including two straight-sets wins today\u2014en route to her third final.<\/p>\n
Raducanu conquered Cirstea in the second round then did double duty today.<\/p>\n
First, she defeated lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova, 6-3, 7-5, in the quarterfinals before returning to Andy Murray Arena in later afternoon to face Jovic.<\/p>\n
Playing proactive tennis, Raducanu whipped down the line drives off both wings to put the 18-year-old Jovic on the defensive behind the baseline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Raducanu raced out to 4-1 leads in both sets today.<\/p>\n
Changing direction decisively, Raducanu rapped a forehand strike down the line sealing the 43-minute opening set with a clenched fist toward her box.<\/p>\n
Aggressive court positioning helped Raducanu apply pressure on the American\u2019s serve. Creeping forward to attack a second-serve return, Raducanu exploited a\u00a0 Jovic double fault off the tape to break for a 2-0 second-set lead.<\/p>\n
World No. 42 Raducanu saved a break point holding for 5-2 and surged through seven of the last eight points for her third career final.<\/p>\n
At the 2021 US Open, Raducanu made history as the first player\u2014male or female\u2014to play through qualifying and win a Grand Slam singles championship.<\/p>\n
Since then, Raducanu has struggled to recapture that Flushing Meadows form. The London resident has also cycled through coaches at the rate some players change racquets. Raducanu split with coach Francisco Roig after falling to Anastasia Potapova in the Australian Open second round last January. Roig was the ninth coach of Raducanu\u2019s career. She said prior to that split she wanted to adopt a more assertive playing style.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, Raducanu returned to the style of play that helped her rule Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n
Repeatedly sliding the wide serve in both boxes to open the court, Raducanu frequently stepped in to take assertive first strikes and finished at net at times.<\/p>\n
It all added up to a 91-minute triumph over Jovic and a final return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, June 13, 2026Photo credit: Luke Walker\/Getty for LTA Changing direction decisively, Emma Raducanu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-265801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/610X150-Slide_PRO-PLAYER_5-21-26.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n