The SMILE on Emma Raducanu’s face only got bigger as Sweet Caroline’s heart sounded through Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. He joined in singing Britain’s enduring sports anthem when fans dressed as Union Jack on top levels influenced the soundtrack reserved for their revered champions of the whole sport. It was the most British celebration you could imagine to mark Raducanu’s 6-4, 6-3 victory over Canadian Leylah Fernandez in the U.S. Open final.
It also ended with a 44-year title drought. No Englishwoman had won any tennis category since Virginia Wade led Wimbledon in 1977. It would take something spectacular, someone beyond anyone’s wildest imagination, to break that streak. Raducanu, an 18-year-old with little experience on the WTA Tour, was adapting to that turnover. His biggest title so far had come at a Futures event at the Deccan Gymkhana tracks in Pune in 2019: he spent three weeks in India, even playing an ITF tournament in Solapur. The history of Cinderella, however, took place in the early hours of Sunday at the largest 23,000-seat tennis court.
This is how the final was won
At a time when Brexit policies were being politicized and the week the UK government threatened to return immigrant ships to France, it needed a Canadian-born teenager of a Romanian father and a Chinese mother to place England in the sports center.
Emma Raducanu of Great Britain reacts after defeating Leylah Fernandez of Canada during the women’s singles final of the US Open (AP) tennis championship
Raducanu’s parents were not in New York to witness the unprecedented title due to Covid-related visa restrictions. But this allowed her mother to collect the Kent Player of the Year award at the local Sundridge Park tennis club in Bromley, while the young woman picked up the biggest award of her career.
Both parents work in finance and it is said that her father wanted to hire a different coach to help her practice each shot. He even practiced with her on the street away from home during last year’s closing. Although the resident’s background in south-east London does no justice to the odds she overcame to win the US Open.
Raducanu currently ranks 150th in the world, which will now rise to 23 when the ranking is updated on Monday. He has barely had experience on the WTA Tour, having won just four of the seven games on the regular tour. He first appeared as a Wild Card entrant in the Wimbledon main draw in June.
Leylah Fernandez of Canada on the left and Emma Raducanu of Britain pose for photos after Raducanu defeated Fernandez in the women’s singles final of the US Open (AP) tennis championship
Ranked 338th in the world at the time, she won three rounds comfortably: she got the scalp of former world number 21 Sorana Cirstea and the finalist of the 2019 French Open Marketa Vondrousova. He retired from the game in the fourth round after suffering respiratory problems. At the time, the career of the No. 10 British women’s players at the time promised that it would be nothing more than a storm episode in a cup of tea. And she was also realistic about her chances at the US Open.
So much so that he previously booked a flight back to England once the qualifying rounds were over. It turned out that he exceeded two weeks, becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title, doing so without leaving out. She also became the lowest player since Kim Clijsters (2009 US Open on the return leg) won the American Slam.
With that, Raducanu got a whopping $ 2.5 million check. That, for a player who had so far won just $ 303,376, and the Futures event in Pune in 2019. Brand experts have estimated she could earn up to GBP 25 million in endorsements next month.
Emma Raducanu, from Great Britain, reacts after scoring a point against Leylah Fernandez, from Canada, during the women’s singles final of the US Open (AP) tennis championship
And if it hadn’t been clear before, the teen’s attention has now only shifted to tennis.
As a child, Raducanu had forays into karting, motocross, ballet, horseback riding, tap dancing, and even table tennis during her mother’s annual trips to Shenyang, China. But her main priority – according to the people who knew her – was academic.
“Everyone thinks I’m an absolute fan of my school’s results,” the Class A student said during Wimbledon, according to an AFP report. “They think I have such an inflated ego about it. Actually, I would say I have high standards. This has helped me get to where I am in terms of tennis and also in terms of school results ”.
This academic approach prevented her from emerging as a big name on the junior tour, with a top rating of 20. In fact, it was on the junior tour that she met Fernandez once before Sunday who faced the title of all teenagers. The duo had played a second-round match at the 2018 Junior Girls event at Wimbledon, with Raducanu winning the victory.
At the U.S. Open in the last three weeks, Raducanu spun around and impressed his colleagues and fans, including his top critic. “My dad told me ‘you’re even better than I thought,’ so it was reassuring. My dad is definitely very hard to please, but I got it,” he said.