Emma Raducanu, winner of the US Open, finds new fans in China

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The British tennis player beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez on Saturday, who won the set victory on the straight, becoming the biggest grand slam winner since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004.

Raducanu, who was born in Canada to a Chinese mother and a Romanian father, talked about his Chinese career in an interview before the final. “Having a Chinese mother, she definitely instilled from a young age hard work, discipline,” she said.

He added that he was inspired by Chinese tennis player Li Na, the former No. 2 in the world, now retired, and “just as she was such a fierce competitor.”

And after his victory on Sunday, he addressed his followers in Mandarin. “Hello everyone, I would like to thank you,” he said. “I hope you enjoyed watching my tennis. Right now I’m very, very happy … Thank you, I love you!”

He immediately won over new fans in China, who praised his performance on the track, as well as his pride in his heritage. Many also praised his Mandarin message, delighting in his “beautiful” northeastern accent: his mother is originally from Shenyang City, northeast of Liaoning Province.

“Her grandmother in Shenyang should be proud of her and those in Shenyang are also proud of her,” said a user of Chinese platform Weibo.

His victory tended to Weibo; a hashtag, “18-year-old Chinese Player Winning U.S. Open Championship,” has been viewed more than 200 million times, while video of his Mandarin message has been viewed more than a million times .

British player Emma Raducanu is on the court after defeating Leylah Fernandez of Canada on September 11 in New York.
Chinese official media also celebrated his victory and highlighted his Chinese roots. State tabloid Global Times reported that Raducanu was “very interested in Chinese culture” and that he visited Shenyang often to see his grandmother and other relatives. State media noted that the young star also plays table tennis and sometimes practiced at a local table tennis gym in Shenyang while visiting.
“The side of my mother’s family, when I go to China, is very mentally resilient,” Raducanu said in a previous interview, according to the state-run China Daily. “It’s like nothing could make them fall. I’d say I take a lot of my inspiration from her.”
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Tennis has grown in popularity in China in the last decade, largely due to Li Na’s success in the world. Li’s victory at the 2011 French Open was seen by only 116 million viewers in China, which boosted the development of the game in the world’s most populous nation. The women’s association organized nine events in China in 2019, compared to the two in 2008.

In 2014, China had invested hundreds of millions of dollars to launch the Wuhan Open, a tennis tournament held in Li’s hometown. Li’s victory was “the new frontier of tennis in China, a new era,” Fabrice Chouquet, co-tournament director of the Wuhan Open, said in 2016.

Now, Raducanu’s spectacular victory may inspire a new generation of Chinese tennis players.

“I will show this video to my daughter, hoping that (Emma) can be her idol,” one user commented in Raducanu’s post-match interview, which has garnered millions of views on Weibo.

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