Zheng reaches first career grass-court semifinal

Agency:

China’s Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen reached the semifinals on grass for the first time in her career as she knocked out home sensation Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-4 at the Queen’s Club Championships here on Friday.

Zheng, 22, entered the WTA 500 tournament as the top seed and received a bye in the first round.

She needed two hours and 11 minutes to beat McCartney Kessler from the United States 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the second round on Thursday and seemed to repeat the story on Friday as she was broken twice at the beginning of the second set.

“My first serves dropped a lot since the start of the second set and it’s kind of destructive on grass court,” said Zheng after the match.