Emma Raducanu scripts historical past, beats Leylah Fernandez to win maiden US Open

Unseeded British teenager Emma Raducanu went from qualifier to champion on the US Open in simply her second look at a Grand Slam match.
Raducanu beat Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 within the closing at Flushing Meadows on Saturday to develop into the primary participant to go preliminary qualifying rounds all the best way to a serious title within the skilled period.

Qualifier ➡️ Champion
Emma Raducanu wins 10 matches to do the unthinkable on the #USOpen pic.twitter.com/K3X5mLlnCL
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
The 18-year-old Raducanu, who’s ranked one hundred and fiftieth, wound up successful all 20 units she performed in New York — six in qualifying, 14 in the primary draw — and is the primary lady to win the singles championship with out dropping a set since Serena Williams in 2014.
This was the primary main closing between two teenagers since Williams, 17, beat Martina Hingis, 18, on the 1999 U.S. Open and the primary between two unseeded ladies.
Raducanu broke to go up 4-2 within the second set, held for 5-2 and twice was some extent from successful the title within the subsequent sport. But she let each of these alternatives slip away by placing groundstrokes into the online.
Then at 5-3, whereas Raducanu was serving for the match, she slid on the court docket chasing a ball to her backhand aspect, bloodying her left knee. A coach got here out to place a white bandage on the minimize and, throughout a delay of greater than 4 minutes, Fernandez — a 19-year-old left-hander from Canada ranked 73rd — spoke to chair umpire Marijana Veljovic.
When they resumed, Raducanu saved a pair of break factors, then transformed on her third probability to shut it, ending a 108 mph ace. She dropped her racket, landed on her again and coated her face with each arms.

Everyone has their fairy story ending 😊@EmmaRaducanu | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/2ttCchmixi
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
Raducanu is the primary British lady to win a Grand Slam trophy since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.
She can also be the youngest participant to assert a ladies’s main title since Maria Sharapova was 17 at Wimbledon in 2004.
Fernandez was requested throughout a short pre-match interview within the hallway that leads from the locker room to the court docket entrance what she anticipated Saturday’s best problem to be.
“Honestly,” she responded, “I don’t know.”

A dream come true for @EmmaRaducanu 🏆 pic.twitter.com/gAYrRBlh4t
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
Fair. Neither she nor Raducanu may have really recognized what to anticipate in one of many unlikeliest closing matchups in Grand Slam historical past.
Both walked out to loud ovations — Fernandez’s was barely louder — and carrying their gear baggage with each straps over their shoulders, the best way somebody their age would possibly do with a backpack for highschool (Raducanu just lately accomplished her exams) or faculty.
They each have performed like veterans over these weeks in Flushing Meadows, with the poise and shot-making of veterans. The closing was entertaining and, for essentially the most half, even, stuffed with prolonged factors and prolonged video games. The expertise and affinity for the massive stage each possess is unmistakable.
Took 28 minutes for merely 4 video games, with a break and a maintain apiece making it 2-all. Both blew possibilities at occasions. At others, each got here up with the products, producing on-the-run baseline excellence.
The second set’s preliminary 4 video games unfolded in the identical method — 2-all after a break and a maintain apiece.
One of the numerous variations got here firstly of factors, as a result of that’s the place Fernandez faltered extra. She put solely 58% of her first serves in, completed with 5 double-faults, serving to Raducanu accumulate 18 break factors.
Raducanu transformed 4 of these.

Emma Raducanu’s dominant #USOpen efficiency reminds us of a sure somebody… pic.twitter.com/3C4Zb8UmYF
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
The crowd was so quiet proper earlier than and through factors that one may hear the right-handed Raducanu’s slap of a leg whereas ready to obtain serves or her whisper of an exhale whereas swinging her racket.
And people — thrilled to be again on-site after final 12 months’s pandemic ban of all spectators — received so loud after them, particularly celebrating together with the left-handed Fernandez’s bodily coach, who would leap out of his front-row nook seat and shake his fists when issues went his participant’s means.
Fernandez’s group — together with Mom, however not Dad, who stayed residence in Florida, the place they moved after early success within the juniors a number of years in the past — was within the visitor field assigned to the higher-ranked participant. That’s a standing Fernandez was unaccustomed to within the match as she beat 4 straight seeded ladies, every in three units: defending champion Naomi Osaka and 2016 champ Angelique Kerber, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 5 Elina Svitolina.
So Fernandez got here in having spent greater than 12 1/2 hours on court docket via her six matches; Raducanu’s complete was a tad greater than 7 1/2 hours in the primary draw. That gave the impression to be an element.E