MAGIC EMMA SOARS INTO SEMIS

EMMA RADUCANU produced another devastating performance to cruise past Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in their US Open quarter-final.

The 18-year-old Briton again seemed unfazed despite the importance of the match and her unfamiliarity with such an occasion, as she broke 11th seed Bencic twice in the first set and again in the second and made few unforced errors as she won 6-3, 6-4.

The teenager has yet to drop a set at Flushing Meadows in only her second grand-slam event and expectations of her winning the tournament have cranked up another level.

Raducanu made a tentative start, losing her opening service game and falling 2-0 behind, but she held her nerve and broke back in the sixth game to draw level at 3-3. She then played her best game, on serve, to go in front for the first time at 4-3 and began to find her range and rhythm.

A superb forehand winner gave Raducanu another break point in the

eighth game and she clinched it with the help of a net-cord in the next rally.

Bencic, the 11th seed, found herself under increasing pressure as Raducanu closed in on the first set and the Briton held serve to clinch it.

Raducanu spurned a chance for two break points in Bencic’s opening service game in the second set as the Swiss produced a brilliant backhand

pass and then took the next two points to hold.

In the fifth game, the Briton cranked it up as a brilliant forehand return gave her two break points and she sealed her third break of the contest as Bencic, who had won 13 of 14 previous matches, buckled with a double fault.

The 24-year-old produced an ace to hold serve and keep her hopes alive at

4-5 down. Serving to reach the semifinals, Raducanu double-faulted to trail 0-30 but won the next two points and delivered an ace to give her match point. Bencic then hit a forehand into the net as Raducanu secured a place in the last four, where she will face either fourth seed Karolina Pliskova or Greece’s Maria Sakkari, who were due to play overnight.