Emma Raducanu beats Sorana Cirstea at Queen’s Club 2026 to reach quarter-finals and avenge Cluj-Napoca defeat

Emma Raducanu has advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2026 Queen’s Club Championships after a commanding straight-sets victory over Sorana Cirstea on the London grass, with the British No 1 scheduled to face world No 78 Kamilla Rakhimova later the same day.

Raducanu, currently ranked 42nd in the world, defeated the 18th-ranked Romanian 6-4, 6-2 in the WTA 500 event, building an emphatic 4-0 lead in the opening set before withstanding a brief Cirstea resurgence to close it out. The 23-year-old then broke serve twice in the second set to complete a dominant display against one of the tour’s more consistent performers in 2026.

The result directly reversed a 0-6, 2-6 defeat Raducanu suffered against the 36-year-old Cirstea in the final of the Cluj-Napoca tournament in February — a result that underscored Cirstea’s dangerous form heading into this match.

“It feels incredible to have come out and played as I did today against Sorana,” Raducanu said in her on-court interview. “She’s been a player who, this year, has been in incredible form, had some amazing wins, reached a really high ranking. And earlier on in the year, she beat me, but I’m really pleased that I could kind of get her back at home, as well.”

Reflecting on her tactical approach, the 2021 US Open champion acknowledged that aggression was non-negotiable against Cirstea. “I think I played a really high level. I knew that I had to playing Sorana. I had to go out there and play aggressively and dictate, because otherwise if I didn’t, she would do that,” she said. “And as soon as I kind of took my foot off the gas a little bit, or didn’t execute in the first set, she was coming back. But yeah, I think straight from the get-go I actually put a really good game on the court, and I’m really pleased that I’m able to play another match here.”

Former British No 1 Annabel Croft, commentating on the match for BBC, observed the psychological dimension of the contest while Raducanu held her four-game advantage in the first set. “Well, she looks pretty dejected right now,” Croft said of Cirstea. “I feel as if Raducanu, psychologically, has got under her skin.”

Following the conclusion of the match, Croft offered a broader assessment of Raducanu’s performance, noting an improvement from the opening round. “She’s taken it up a notch from her opening round,” the former world No 24 said. “I thought that she was going to be given a much bigger test from Cirstea, which she was, but she sort of matched it and kept on rising her own levels, and struck the ball with such authority, knew when to be patient and build the points, and knew when to step up and go for it. Great returns of serve, as we always say. And some really, really decent serving, getting a lot of free points off it. And when the going got tough and the rallies were extended, she did well.”

This marks Raducanu’s second consecutive appearance in the Queen’s Club quarter-finals, underlining her growing consistency on grass ahead of Wimbledon. With Cirstea having climbed to a career-high ranking region in 2026, the victory carries added weight as Raducanu builds momentum on her home surface. Her next opponent, Rakhimova, represents a different challenge, with the Russian ranked outside the top 75 but capable of extended baseline exchanges.