Emma Raducanu, the world’s 60th ranked tennis player, has started her 2025 season on a high note with back-to-back victories at the Miami Open. The first significant win came against 19-year-old Japanese wildcard Sayaka Ishii with a commanding score of 6-2, 6-1. Raducanu, a 2021 US Open champion, further showcased her prowess by clinching a nail-biting second-round victory over world’s 10th ranked player Emma Navarro in a gruelling match lasting nearly three hours.
This triumph over Navarro marks Raducanu’s third win against a top 10 player in the WTA rankings and her first-ever on hard courts. The talented Brit is now set to face an unseeded player, McCartney Kessler, ranked 48 in the world, in the third round of the Miami Open.
Kessler, a rising star in the world of tennis, hails from Calhoun, Georgia. She had an illustrious college tennis career at the University of Florida, earning the title of a three-time All-American and three-time First Team All-SEC player. The 25-year-old player made significant strides in 2024, jumping from a ranking of 217th at the start of the year to 67th by the end. She claimed her first WTA title at the Tennis in the Land WTA 250 event in August of the same year.
Kessler has continued her upward trajectory in 2025, adding a second title to her name at the Hobart International in January and finishing as a runner-up at the ATX Open in March, both WTA 250 tournaments. Notably, all three of her finals to date have been on hard-court surfaces. She also made headlines by defeating world No 3 Coco Gauff 6-4, 7-5 in the second round of the WTA 1000 event in Dubai in February. Currently, Kessler is ranked just one place below her career-best of 47th, a position she achieved in January after her Hobart title victory. She is projected to touch a new career-high of world No 42 in the live rankings.
To seal her spot in the third round of the Miami Open, Kessler demonstrated her tenacity with hard-earned three-set victories over two Czech opponents. She defeated world No 50 Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the first round and triumphed over the 31st-ranked Linda Noskova 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 in her second-round match.
The highly anticipated face-off between Raducanu and Kessler in the last 32 of the Miami Open is scheduled for Sunday, March 23. The playing order for the day is yet to be confirmed.
Speaking about her upcoming match against Kessler in a Tennis Channel interview, Raducanu said, “I know she’s a really tough opponent… I just saw the end of her match in Dubai with Coco, so you know, she’s been playing really well and winning a lot of matches recently, in great form. It’s a match where I know I’m going to have to be at my best to kind of get through and have a chance. But I think for now, I’m just really happy with my performance today.”
