New York: British teenager Emma Raducanu arrived in New York last month with a ranking of 150th, just one grand slam appearance to her name and a flight booked to head out of town after the US Open’s preliminary rounds in case she failed to win her way into the main tournament.
And there she was in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday, cradling the silver trophy to complete an unlikely — indeed, unprecedented — and surprisingly dominant journey from qualifier to major champion by beating Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 in the final.
“The future of women’s tennis, and just the depth of the game right now, is so great,” said the 18-year-old Raducanu, who will rise into the WTA’s top 25 this week. “I think every single player here in the women’s draw definitely has a shot of winning any tournament.”
The first female qualifier ever to reach a grand slam final, let alone win one, proved that emphatically. She captured 10 matches in a row at Flushing Meadows — three in qualifying, seven in the main draw — and is the first woman to win the US Open title without dropping a set since Serena Williams in 2014.
This was the first major final between two teens since Williams, 17, beat Martina Hingis, 18, at the 1999 US Open and the first between two unseeded women in the professional era, which began in 1968.
“I hope to be back here in the finals and this time with a trophy — the right one,” Fernandez said as tears welled in her eyes.
Emma Raducanu of Britain holds up the US Open championship trophy after defeating Leylah Fernandez of Canada.Credit: AP
Raducanu broke to go up 4-2 in the second set, held for 5-2 and twice was a point from winning the title in the next game. But under pressure from Fernandez, she let both of those opportunities slip away by putting groundstrokes into the net.
“That’s just the competitor that she is,” Raducanu said about Fernandez, whom she last faced in the second round of the Wimbledon juniors event three years ago.
Slightly different stakes back then.
At 5-3, while serving for the match, Raducanu slid on the court chasing a ball to her backhand side, bloodying her left knee. A trainer came out to put a white bandage on the cut and, during a delay of more than four minutes, Fernandez — a 19-year-old left-hander from Canada ranked 73rd — spoke to chair umpire Marijana Veljovic.
“I was just praying not for a double-fault, but we got through it,” said Raducanu, the youngest women’s grand slam champion since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon at 17 in 2004. “I think just staying in the moment, focusing on what I had to do, my process and the mindset just really helps in those tough times.”
After action returned, Raducanu saved a pair of break points, then converted on her third chance to close it out with a 174km/h ace. She dropped her racket, landed on her back and covered her face with both hands.
Raducanu, who was born in Toronto and moved to England with her family at age 2, is the first British woman to win a grand slam trophy since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977. Queen Elizabeth II sent a congratulatory note, hailing the victory as a “remarkable achievement at such a young age.”
Fernandez, whose birthday was Monday, was asked during a pre-match interview in the hallway that leads from the locker room to the court entrance what she expected Saturday’s greatest challenge to be. “Honestly,” she responded, “I don’t know.”
Fair. Neither she nor Raducanu could have truly known.
The Briton celebrates winning match point.Credit: Getty Images
Both walked out to loud ovations — Fernandez’s was slightly more raucous — and wearing their equipment bags with both straps over their shoulders, the way someone might do with a backpack for high school (Raducanu recently completed her exams) or university.
Both displayed the poise and shot-making of veterans at the US Open. The talent and affinity for the big stage both possess is unmistakable.
The final was entertaining, filled with lengthy points and lengthy games.
One of the significant differences came at the start of points, because that is where Fernandez faltered. She put only 58 per cent of her first serves in and finished with five double-faults, helping Raducanu accumulate 18 break points, four of which were converted.
Raducanu reacts after her stunning victory.Credit: AP
The crowd was so quiet right before and during points that one could hear the right-handed Raducanu’s slap of a leg while waiting to receive serves or her whisper of an exhale while swinging her racket.
And folks — thrilled to be back on-site after last year’s pandemic ban of all spectators — got so loud after points, celebrating along with the left-handed Fernandez’s physical trainer, who would leap out of his front-row seat when things went his player’s way.
Fernandez’s group — including two sisters and Mom but not Dad, who stayed home in Florida, where they moved after her early success in the juniors several years ago — was in the guest box assigned to the higher-ranked player. That’s a status Fernandez was unaccustomed to in the tournament as she beat four straight seeded women, each in three sets: defending champion Naomi Osaka and 2016 champ Angelique Kerber, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 5 Elina Svitolina.
Fernandez came in having spent more than 12-and-a-half hours on court through her six matches; Raducanu’s main-draw total was about seven-and-a-half hours.
That seemed to be a factor, particularly over the second half of the one-hour, 51-minute final.
From 4-4 in the opening set, Raducanu took eight of the last 11 games. When she broke to take that set with a well-paced, well-placed forehand winner down the line, she stared at her entourage, then whipped her arms — and the fans reacted.
Raducanu’s only previous grand slam tournament came at Wimbledon, where she stopped playing during the fourth round because of trouble breathing. That was July, when Raducanu was ranked outside the top 300 and an unknown.
How quickly all of that has changed.
AP