Sport

Sporting hits of 2021: Emma Raducanu’s fairytale of New York

A star is born as 18-year-old wins improbable US Open title by beating Leylah Fernandez

Emma Raducanu secured an improbable victory in the US Open. Photograph: Al Bello/Getty

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Philip Reid
Tue Dec 28 2021 - 14:00

US Women’s Open Final - Emma Raducanu v Leylah Fernandez, Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York, September 11th.

Somewhat poignantly on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York, two teenagers - neither even born at the time of the Twin Tower atrocity - heralded in a new age for women’s tennis.

Emma Raducanu - born in Canada to a Chinese mother and a Romanian father and brought up in England since the age of two - completed her own fairytale of New York, defeating Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez 6-4, 6-3.

In claiming victory just months into her professional career, Raducanu passed a number of career milestones, most significantly becoming the first ever qualifier in professional tennis’s so-called Open era to win a Grand Slam event. Indeed, for the US Open, she’d booked a return flight home to England to coincide with the end of the qualifying phase, only to continuously rebook to the point where she boarded the plane as the champion.

At 18 years of age, she became the youngest Grand Slam championship since Maria Sharapova in 2004; and, with Virginia Wade among those in attendance, became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam since Wade won at Wimbledon in 1977.

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Leylah Fernandez and Emma Raducanu - ushering in a new era of women’s tennis? Photograph: Elsa/Getty

Raducanu’s wonderful odyssey started with a qualifying win over Dutch player Bibiane Schoofs on August 26th. It would take three qualifying matches to get into the main draw, where she then won six matches to reach the final against Fernandez where her record of not dropping a set in any match was maintained.

In a match of great intensity and some wonderful shot-making, Raducanu was forced to take a medical timeout at 6-4, 5-3 and a break point down in the second set after grazing her knee when sliding into a defensive backhand. The break was obligatory under the rules once openly bleeding and it stalled Fernandez’s momentum.

Raducanu returned to save break point and then another with an overhead winner, then drilled a backhand down the line to bring up match point. She served out with an ace.

“It was an incredibly difficult match but I thought the level was extremely high. I hope we play each other in many more tournaments and hopefully finals,” said the champion of the potential new rivalry.