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Emma Raducanu won the women’s cup at the US Open on Saturday, amazingly tennis as the first Grand Slam trophy winner to enter the competition through their merits.
An 18-year-old Kent girl is the first British woman to win a major competition since Wade Virginia Wade won at Wimbledon in 1977. Raducanu maintained a stellar performance by showing off for two weeks in New York, defeating fellow teenager Leylah Fernandez of Canada 6-4, 6- 3.
This victory cuts Raducanu as a name in Britain, if not the rest of the world. Since the qualifying match last Saturday, he has not lost a match against 10 opponents in two and a half weeks.
The last match that did not take place on Saturday between two unnamed youngsters – the finalists in Grand Slam history – met his challenge at Raducanu, meeting a colleague at Fernandez who is known to be unconcerned with the former player.
Leylah Fernandez (R), here with Raducanu, defeated defender Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber who were the first in the world to enter the US Open for the last time © Justin Lane / EPA-EFE
“I knew I had to dig deeper,” Raducanu said as he struggled to break into the second half. Encouragement in Queens by Wade by British tennis player Tim Henman, “gave me confidence that I can do it”.
Thanksgiving Raducanu immediately began to spread on television, including the Queen. In a post on Instagram, she described Raducanu’s success as “an amazing thing as a child”.
Sports advertisers prediction Raducanu could be the new face of British tennis, and interest in support could grow beyond just a handful of sponsors, Wilson and Nike.
Born in Toronto to a Chinese mother and a Romanian father, he moved with his family to the UK at the age of two and is a member of the Lawn Tennis Association. Earlier this week, Raducanu said his best tennis performance was a $ 25,000 prize at the 2019 tournament in Pune, India.
His performance in Queens is only Raducanu’s second appearance in a major competition, after he ran for Wimbledon in July. There, she became the youngest mother in Britain to travel around 16, before being forced to breathe.
Since then, Raducanu has won the most prestigious competitions in North America this summer, earning his trust by continuing the late quarter and final tour of the US and viewing from San Francisco to Chicago.
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“I think I build with every game,” Raducanu said after winning the semi-final on Thursday.
Saturday’s competition, which was played on a bright afternoon when the crowd was packed, was a spectacular display of the next generation of women’s tennis. Fernandez, who turned 19 on Monday, did wonders to make it to the finals, defeating Naomi Osaka’s player and Angelique Kerber who was the first in the world.
He shed tears after being defeated, telling the crowd that he hopes to return next year and pay tribute to the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11. “I believe I can be as brave and resilient as New York has been in the last two decades,” Fernandez said.
The two women have known each other since childhood, but met once in court, after Raducanu defeated Fernandez in the first round of the 2018 Wimbledon Juniors.
Raducanu said he hopes their Saturday rally will be the first in a long-running competition.
“I think it’s a sign that the future and depth of women’s tennis right now is very good,” she said. As for Fernandez, he added: “I hope we will play in more competitions and hopefully we are done.”