The British of Romanian-Chinese descent won 6-4 and 6-3 against Canadian Leylah Fernandez (19), another outsider on Saturday evening at Flushing Meadows in New York. It was already the tenth round for Raducanu, because she had also played in the qualifying tournament. She didn’t lose a single set in those three long weeks. That too is completely unique.
Among the 24 thousand spectators was a beaming Virginia Wade, the last British person to have won the US Open, in 1968. Another mainstay on the scene was Tim Henman, the former top tennis player who is like a mentor to her. Notable absentees were her parents, who were unable to travel to the tournament due to corona measures in the US.
Earlier in the day, her mother Renee was a guest at Sundridge Park tennis club in South London where she received the Kent Player of the Year Cup on behalf of her daughter. This surreal situation typifies the improbably rapid rise of Raducanu, who just three months ago was taking her final exams at the Newstead Wood state gymnasium, located next to the tennis courts where she hit her first ball as a five-year-old.
At the reception of this girls’ school they have pictures of her hung up at the reception, next to those of top athlete Dina Ashr-Smith, another alumnus.
At Wimbledon she had already stolen the hearts of her compatriots by reaching the fourth round from scratch – as number 338 in the world she received a wild card. She had to give up against Ajla Tomljanovic at a 4-6 and 0-3 deficit due to hyperventilation. Her mental toughness has been questioned, including by tennis legend John McEnroe and television personality Piers Morgan.
In New York, she proved these critics wrong by making it to the final with relative ease. The fear that she would lose it in an unfortunate, typically British way, turned out to be unfounded. Her strokes, as elegant as they were hard, were unplayable for Fernandez. Former players rave about Raducanu’s game. “I have played and watched tennis for a long time, but I have not seen anything like this before,” said Martina Navratilova.
Shortly after the ace with which Raducanu decided the match appropriately, the reactions poured in.
“I have no doubt that your extraordinary achievement, and that of your opponent Leylah Fernandez, will inspire a new generation of tennis players,” Queen Elizabeth said from her Balmoral retreat. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, himself an avid tennis player, spoke of a “sensational match”, complimenting Raducanu on her “skills, calm and daring”.
Match of the Dayhost Gary Lineker, barely recovering from Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester, said he was tweeting for the first time during the broadcast. “My goodness, what an achievement, what a victory, what an incredible young woman.” The Spice Girls also showed their admiration via social media, as well as footballer Jack Grealish. Millions of Brits have watched the match at home.
The win has been compared to great sporting achievements of the past, such as the famous 1981 cricket match in which Ian Botham virtually single-handedly defeated Australia. Or with Leicester City, which shocked the football world five years ago by winning the Premier League. The last time a British tennis woman won a Grand Slam at all was in 1977. In that year, the aforementioned Wade won against the Dutch Betty Stöve.
The success of Raducanu is also seen as a beautiful immigration story. Emma was two years old when she came to the British Isles with her parents from Canada, where she was born. They settled in Bromley, a quiet and prosperous suburb of London that can count the writers HG Wells and David Bowie as former residents. Her Romanian father and Chinese mother work in the financial world.
It is striking how many British top athletes were born abroad. For example, athlete Mo Farah was born in Somalia. The two Tour de France winners Bradley Wiggins (Belgium) and Chris Froome (Kenya) have also seen the first light elsewhere. At the last European Football Championship, Raheem Sterling – born in Jamaica – was the big crowd favorite.
