Ukrainian Success Story...

..which should stop here.

The match-up revolves around a relentless statistic: time spent on court. Emma Raducanu has spent only about 4 hours in total to reach this stage, showing a physical freshness that her finally healed foot allows her to fully exploit. Her crisp ball-striking, backed by a new-found calm despite the rumors about her switching equipment sponsors to Uniqlo, imposes a pace of play that very few players can handle indoors. Driven by a proud Romanian father and a crowd won over by her words in Romanian, she is playing for much more than a victory: she is aiming to offer the Cluj crowd the long-awaited final against Sorana Cirstea.

Oleksandra Oliynykova is something of a miracle survivor whose tank seems dangerously close to empty. She has already racked up more than 8 hours of intense battle, yet is setting a personal WTA record here on a hard court, which is not even her natural surface of choice. While she has proven capable of saving desperate situations by drawing on her patriotic motivation, she is about to run into a metronomic Emma who will not give her any “free points.” After finishing her last match by asking for a Ukrainian flag from the crowd to mark out her emotional territory, Sashka now risks paying the physical price. Against Raducanu’s power, the risk of a collapse is immense for the underdog who has already given everything just to get here.