NEW YORK — In the end it took ten matches, twenty sets and not one of them lost. Emma Raducanu, an 18-year-old from Kent ranked 150th in the world, completed one of the most astonishing runs in tennis history on Saturday, beating Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 to win the US Open.
The numbers still resist belief. Raducanu is the first qualifier — man or woman — ever to win a Grand Slam title. She did not drop a set in three qualifying rounds and seven main-draw matches. She was playing in only her second major tournament, two months after a Wimbledon run that ended when she retired mid-match with breathing difficulties, and three months after sitting her school exams.
Saturday’s final, between two teenagers of immigrant families — Fernandez is 19, with Filipino and Ecuadorian roots; Raducanu was born in Toronto to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother — was a showcase of fearless returning and nerve. It also carried a poignant setting: played on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it began with a ceremony of remembrance.
Raducanu is the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade in 1977. The Queen sent a message of congratulations; in Britain, the final drew a peak television audience of more than nine million.
What happens next will be scrutinised like few careers before it. But nothing that follows can take away the fortnight itself: a qualifier who came to New York with a booking home after the first week, and left as champion.
Media-Society.com is a press network association based in Spain, founded in 2020. More at www.media-society.com.
