Emma Raducanu’s New York fairytale has been laced with improbability from the very beginning so it was only fitting that, when the end came, there should be one final, dramatic twist.
Serving to become the first qualifier in history to win a grand slam title, Raducanu scraped her knee on the concrete surface of the Arthur Ashe Stadium and had to take a medical timeout. The British teenager had missed two match points in the previous game and now, leading 5-3 in the second set, she would have to step up to the line at break point down, her US Open dream in the balance.
Leylah Fernandez’s run to the final has been every bit as extraordinary as Raducanu’s, and unlikely comebacks have been its lifeblood. This time, though, the 19-year-old Canadian – who railed at WTA supervisor Clare Wood about the break in play while her opponent was patched up – had finally met her match. Raducanu averted the danger, went on to save a second break point with an awkward but athletic overhead, and served out the game with her second ace of a life-changing night, completing a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
No one does this. No one comes through qualifying to win the US Open at the age of 18, just three months after leaving school, ranked 150th in the world, and without losing a set. Had a Hollywood scriptwriter pitched such a story, it would have been laughed out of court. Yet it is true, as a statement from the Queen congratulating the Briton on her “outstanding performance” confirmed.
“I’ve always dreamed of winning a grand slam,” said Raducanu. “You just say these things. You say, ‘I want to win a grand slam. But to have the belief I did, and actually executing, winning a grand slam, I can’t believe it.
“I first started when I was a little girl, but I think the biggest thing that you have visions of is, for me, it was just winning, the winning moment, and going to celebrate with your team in the box, trying to find your way up to the box, just seeing them after the match. That’s been playing in my head, like, a couple nights.”
That moment too became reality after the match, Raducanu making her way up to into the stands to celebrate with her coach Andrew Richardson and the rest of her ream. It will not be the last time. Raducanu is the youngest woman to win a major since Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004, and the first British female to enter the grand slam winners’ circle since Virginia Wade in 1977. Wade, who looked on with approval from the President’s Box, was also the last British woman to win in New York. That was in 1968. With Raducanu around, it is unlikely to be another 53 years before we see the next British triumph at Flushing Meadows.
The match was compelling and fiercely contested from the outset. Raducanu took an early lead, finally converting her sixth break point after an epic struggle on the Fernandez serve, but there was never any prospect of her running away with the set as she had done in earlier rounds. Sure enough, another tense, lengthy game ensued, the Canadian finally seizing her fourth break point as Raducanu netted a backhand. With three games played, 23 minutes had elapsed.
Fernandez continued to threaten, and there were some nervous glances from Raducanu up towards her box as she fought through her next two service games. But she remained committed to the courageous ball-striking that has been her hallmark throughout her incredible 10-match run, and in the tenth game her boldness was rewarded. Fernandez tenaciously fended off three set points, but Raducanu earned a fourth with a sizzling off forehand, and another crunching shot off that wing, guided down the line for a clean winner, gave her the set.
The presence of two teenagers in a grand slam final for the first time since 1999 has brought a sense of renewal to this US Open, a quality made all the more poignant by the pre-match ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Neither Fernandez nor Raducanu were born in 2001, and their youthful vibrancy both on and off the court has been a welcome reminder that life endures. Afterwards, Fernandez paid a warm tribute to the crowd, who have been firmly in her corner throughout the fortnight. “I know on this day it’s especially hard for New York and everyone around the United States,” she said. “I just want to say that I hope I can be as strong and resilient as New York has been the last 20 years.”
By that time, she had already demonstrated as much. Having staved off three break points in her opening service game of the second set, Fernandez broke in the next game to lead 2-1. She had come from a set down to beat former champion Angelique Kerber as well as Elina Svitolina, the fifth seed, and another comeback looked on the cards. Raducanu, unaccustomed to trailing in such a manner, roused herself anew, breaking back immediately with an acutely angled backhand return. Now she had the bit between her teeth, and a second break soon followed. Fernandez saved two match points at 5-2, only for controversy to erupt in the next game as blood flowed from Raducanu’s wounded knee.
“I honestly did not know what was happening with Emma,” said the Canadian. “I didn’t know how serious her fall was, so that’s why I went to see the official and ask her about it. You know what, it just happened in the heat of the moment. It was just too bad that it happened in that specific moment with me, with the momentum. But it’s sports, it’s tennis.”
As for Raducanu, her life will change immeasurably from here. Yet if anyone has the maturity and composure to cope with success of this kind at such a precociously young age, it is her. Asked afterwards if making history would place a heavier burden on her, Raducanu’s reply was telling.
“I don’t feel absolutely any pressure,” she said. “I’m still only 18 years old. I’m just having a free swing as anything that comes my way. That’s how I faced every match here in the States. It got me this trophy, so I don’t think I should change anything.”
It is hard to argue.