U.S. Open: Emma Raducanu wins women's title in historic fashion
Emma Raducanu hugs her trophy in disbelief after defeating Leylah Fernandez in the U.S. Open women's final at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center on Saturday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The U.S. Open has a brand new women’s champion. Tennis has two brand new stars. Arthur Ashe Stadium has its fans back. Saturday was a win, win, win day at Flushing Meadows.
Emma Raducanu, the first qualifier to ever make the final of a Grand Slam tournament, is now an unqualified success. She defeated fellow first-time finalist Leylah Fernandez, who made her own remarkable run here, 6-4, 6-3, on Saturday.
Raducanu, from England, is 18. Fernandez, from Canada and now living in Boynton Beach, Florida, just turned 19. They are the first teenagers to play each other in the final since Serena Williams beat Martina Hingis in 1999.
Raducanu had to win three qualifying matches just to make the main draw, and she can now say that in three weeks and a total of 10 matches that she has never lost a single set in the U.S. Open.
Fernandez is ranked 73rd in the world and is the winner of a small WTA tournament in Monterrey, Mexico. To book a spot against Raducanu in the final, she beat, in order, defending Open champion Naomi Osaka, former Open champion Angelique Kerber, fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina and second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka — a Wimbledon semifinalist this year.
Raducanu popped up on the radar at Wimbledon in July, just out of high school, making the fourth round before retiring from the match with trouble breathing, nerves getting the best of her. What can you expect from someone who had just turned pro. Could she believe where this summer has taken her?
"No, I wouldn’t have believed it at all, because at the beginning of the grass courts, I was coming fresh off my exams," Raducanu said. "I had three weeks to practice before my first tournament. I just built up every single match, every single win."
Neither she nor Fernandez showed any signs of nerves in Saturday’s match, no deer-in-the-headlights moments, no holding back on any part of their games.
The first three games set the tempo of the hard battles to come. Raducanu got the winning break in the 10th game. After holding to start the second set, Raducanu went up 0-40 on Fernandez’s serve. But Fernandez, fighting for every point, rallied back to hold serve. Then Fernandez broke Raducanu in the third and the crowd went bonkers. Raducanu broke right back and got a second break in the sixth game. Fernandez fought off match points in the eighth game, then Raducanu fought off a break point in the ninth to take the match and the title, though there was a bit of a scare.
On the point Fernandez won to get the break chance, Raducanu slipped and skinned her knee on the court with some visible blood. She had to take a medical timeout to get patched up, then returned to serve it out.
"I think this loss, I’m going to carry it for a very long time. I think it will motivate me to do better in training, better for the next opportunity I get," Fernandez said. "But no, I’m very happy with myself, with the way I competed, and the play I played, the way I acted on court the past two weeks. I’ve improved a lot not only tennis-wise but emotionally and mentally. I’m happy."
That makes two of them.
As a child, Raducanu dreamed of winning a major tournament.
"I wanted to win a Grand Slam," she said. "But to have the belief I did, and actually executing, winning a Grand Slam, I can’t believe it."
