WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Nearly four years after being defined by a single fortnight, Emma Raducanu is taking the long view.

She won the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier and what followed were a string of injuries, surgeries and an inescapable cloud of bad karma. Now she’s trusting the process, taking satisfaction from a practice set well played or a successful gym session. At 22, she’s becoming a more professional tennis player.

Washington, D.C.: Draws | Scores | Order of Play

“I think when I watch myself now, I really like how I look on the court -- not in like a narcissistic way,” Raducanu said Thursday, drawing laughter from reporters. “I mean in terms of energy, and I think I feel quite upbeat.

“I think it’s more I look composed on the court. I think that's a product of just the amount of work I'm doing behind the scenes that maybe people don’t see. I know regardless of the result I’m doing the right things, and I’m banking so many good days in a row. It takes a bit of pressure off the immediate result in the matches.”

Perhaps as a result, the results here at the Mubadala Citi DC Open have been stellar. On Friday, Raducanu was a quarterfinal winner, defeating Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5. To do it, she won the last five games in a draining match that required 2 hours and 10 minutes.

“I think you get to a point where you’re so tired that you don’t really know what you’re doing anymore, and I think maybe that helped,” Raducanu said afterwards, recalling her run of games won at the end of the match. “I just really had to be smooth and conserve energy.

“I was also thinking if this goes to three sets, I don't know how I’m going to do it. So just happy I toughed it out.”

In her third appearance in the nation’s capital, Raducanu took one step further than she did in 2022 and 2024. Her quarterfinal record improves to 3-9 and her career mark against Sakkari climbs to 4-0.

It’s Raducanu's first WTA Tour-level semifinal in more than a year and her first on hardcourts in three years.

On the tournament’s hottest day so far -- the temperature hovered in the middle 90s but it felt close to 100 -- it was Sakkari who got out of the blocks the fastest. Thanks to two double faults by Raducanu, she forged to a 2-0 lead.

Raducanu won the next three games, and they were level at 4-4 when Raducanu scored the decisive break with a deft, sharply angled backhand return. She served it out, converting her second set point.

Sakkari took control of the second set and was leading when Raducanu re-asserted herself. After holding serve, she broke Sakkari to get back on serve, converting her fourth opportunity with another sweet backhand return winner. After a brief visit from the trainers, Raducanu broke Sakkari. Two errant forehands were the culprit before Raducanu served it out.

With the WTA Heat Rule in effect, there likely would have been a 10-minute break if Sakkari had won the second set.

“It was one of the toughest matches conditions-wise I have ever played in,” Raducanu said afterward. “Those points in the second set, I was getting a bit wobbly. I think the humidity here, it just makes it feel completely like you have just opened an oven and it just stayed open and your head is in there.”

Meanwhile, it was still a nice tournament for the No. 90-ranked Sakkari, who was celebrating her 30th birthday today. The former World No. 3 defeated Katie Boulter and No. 2 seed Emma Navarro to reach this stage.

Kalinskaya awaits: In Saturday’s semifinals, Raducanu will play Anna Kalinskaya in their first career meeting. World No. 48 Kalinskaya upset No. 4 seed Clara Tauson 6-3, 7-5 in Friday's late quarterfinal.

Tauson defeated Kalinskaya at Wimbledon earlier this month, but Kalinskaya got revenge on Friday, at one of her best-performing stops on tour. Former Top 15 player Kalinskaya also made the 2019 semifinals in Washington, as well as the quarterfinals in 2022.