
Emma Raducanu continues her surprisingly dominant run in the US Open as she reaches her first Grand Slam final at the age of 18 at the US Open. Raducanu will face a fellow 18-year-old Leylah Fernandez in the women’s finals of the US Open.
Emma Raducanu rolls into the #USOpen final! pic.twitter.com/wZruW8HjEZ
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 10, 2021
Raducanu was comfortable against her opponent Maria Sakkari with the final score being 6-1 6-4 in the favour of the teenager from Bromley, England. The 18-year old’s serves were very hard to match as the Greek World No. 17 was not able to return it adequately. The teenage novice played like a veteran in a game against someone who made her WTA debut six years back, in 2015.
Raducanu hasn’t yet dropped a set in the whole tournament and she went past experienced opponents like Sakkari, Bencic and put in an exemplary performance for someone who has just made her debut in the WTA circuit. Her opponent, Fernandez also beat opponents like Kerber and Osaka to get into the finals.
Raducanu had six winners, compared to Sakkari’s seven but the latter had 17 unforced errors which cost her the first set and the teenager won 2/3 break points during the first set. In the second set too, she grabbed hold of the one break she got. Sakkari was pretty frazzled by the teenager’s game as she did put up a fight in the end but it was too little too late.
Raducanu thanked the crowd for supporting her, after the match. She was asked about her looking at coach, former British player Tim Henman during the match and she replied that to her, Henman was an inspiration and helped her a lot to get where she is right now.
Raducanu has become the first qualifier ever to reach a Grand Slam or a major tournament final. Both Fernandez and Raducanu are the youngest Grand Slam finalists since Maria Sharapova. It will be a final worth watching as two budding careers look to get their first Grand Slam in their rookie year.