Emma Raducanu complains to referee over... crying at Cincinnati Open 2025

The match took place under the blazing sun on a hard court, a completely different setting from Emma Raducanu's 2021 US Open Grand Slam.

Emma Raducanu started strongly, breaking and leading Sabalenka, but the world number one quickly recovered to lead 4-2 and then won the first set 7-6.

Thanks to the encouragement "Be brave and calm" from coach Roig, Raducanu gradually regained his confidence, excellently broke and won the second set with a score of 6-4.

In the deciding set, when the score was 4-3 in Sabalenka's favor, an unexpected incident occurred. During her extremely important serve game, the British tennis player suddenly stopped, looking displeased. The crying of a child in the stands distracted Emma Raducanu, forcing her to stop serving and tell the umpire: "This has been going on for about 10 minutes."

The referee replied meaningfully: "That's a child. Do you want me to send that child off the field?".

Emma Raducanu just shrugged, but some fans chanted "yes" on her behalf, causing the Briton to nod in agreement.

"I can call for help, but we need to continue the game," the referee explained during the interruption.

According to tennis rules, if there is loud noise (from outside or from the audience) that affects the match, the player has the right to complain to the referee. After that, the referee and the organizing committee will be responsible for handling the noise sources from the stands or outside to ensure the match runs smoothly.

Although Raducanu continued to hold her serve, she eventually lost narrowly with a total score of 7-6 (6-2), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5).

Notably, this was the first time Raducanu had won a set against Sabalenka in their two previous encounters. Both players fought hard in the 31-degree heat. The deciding set was a battle of wills, especially the eighth game which lasted 22 minutes with 13 breathless draws (deuces).

Emma Raducanu had a match that was not to be outdone. She scored a total of 125 points, even 2 more than Sabalenka. Experts all rated this as one of the best matches of Emma Raducanu's career.

After the match, even Sabalenka had to praise her young opponent's progress and admirable character.