Retro #4 - When Raducanu won the US Open at 18!
With the final round of the Grand Slam set to kick off in just under three days' time, and the qualifiers now all known, it's time to take a step back in time to Emma Raducanu's epic victory at the 2021 US Open.
At the time, the young British nugget was unknown to the public eye, and the spotlight was on players such as Ashleigh Barty, the irresistible world number one for the past two years, Aryna Sabalenka, world number 2 since the summer and semi-finalist at Wimbledon, and defending champion Osaka.
However, it was Raducanu, then aged 18, who defied all logic to win the title in New York.
Taking advantage of a wide-open draw, she achieved a historic feat: winning a Grand Slam by emerging from the qualifying rounds.
Taking part in her second career Major tournament, after a Wimbledon where she had to withdraw due to injury in the Round of 16, Raducanu went on to win not only 10 consecutive matches, but also 20 sets in a row to write a page of tennis history.
Ranked 150th in the world at the start of the US Open, the right-hander first quietly made her way through the qualifying rounds.
Dominating Sherif in the final round (6-1, 6-4), she is now on her way to the main draw.
Without trembling for a moment, she will continue to be carried along by her insouciance to reach the second week in complete tranquillity.
Dominating Voegele (6-2, 6-3) and Zhang (6-2, 6-4) with relative ease, she went on to humiliate Sorribes Tormo in the third round, conceding just one game (6-0, 6-1).
Faced with another surprise of the tournament in the last 16, American Shelby Rogers, she perfectly silenced the crowd, winning in just over an hour (6-2, 6-1).
Having qualified for the quarter-finals, most fans expected her to stop there.
Faced with a Belinda Bencic, gold medalist in Tokyo and in the form of her life, she produced the perfect match (25 winners, 11 unforced errors, 7 aces), winning in two sets and less than an hour and a half (6-3, 6-4).
Having booked her place in the final four, all eyes are now on her and her incredible tournament.
Faced with an up-and-coming Maria Sakkari, a recent semi-finalist at Roland Garros, the Brit did not give up, putting an end to the Greek in just 1 hour and 22 minutes (6-1, 6-4).
She's done it. She's in the US Open final. One match. One match away from one of the craziest performances in recent tennis history.
Opposite her is another very unexpected player: Leylah Fernandez.
Ranked 73rd in the world and with a tournament record even more impressive than Raducanu's, the 19-year-old Canadian starts the match as the favorite.
Having beaten the likes of Osaka, Svitolina and Sabalenka, Fernandez will also fall to the irresistible Raducanu.
Buoyed by a kind of destiny, she disposed of a much tenser Fernandez to win in just under 2 hours (6-4, 6-3).
In her second Grand Slam tournament, she accomplished the feat that many players chase all their lives.
Three years on, can she rediscover her best tennis and become a Grand Slam contender once again?
See you on Monday or Tuesday for the start of the answer, when she takes on Kenin (55th) in the first round of the US Open.
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