Qualifier becomes champion at 18 !

British teen Raducanu scripts history

FACTBOX

a Born to a Romanian father and Chinese mother in Toronto, Canada, Raducanu moved to London aged two and started playing tennis aged five.

a Turned professional in 2018, reaching the top 20 at the junior level.

a Won three International Tennis Federation titles.

a Made her WTA tournament debut at the grasscourt event in Nottingham in June 2021.

a Came to prominence when she made her Grand Slam main draw debut at Wimbledon in July 2021. After entering the tournament as a wildcard ranked 338th in the world, she progressed to the fourth round where she retired against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic after suffering breathing difficulties.

a Reached final of the WTA 125K event in Chicago in August 2021.

a Qualified for the 2021 U.S. Open main draw after posting straight set wins in all three qualifying rounds.

a Ranked 150th in the world, she became first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title. She won the U.S. Open title without dropping a set -- either in qualifying or in her seven main draw matches.

a Became the first British woman to win the U.S. Open since Virginia Wade triumphed in 1968 and the first to capture a Grand Slam title since Wade won Wimbledon in 1977.

a Projected to move up to 23th in the world rankings on Monday after winning the U.S. Open, ending Johanna Konta's 310-week reign as the top ranked British woman.

British teenager Emma Raducanu completed the greatest underdog title triumph in tennis history, becoming the first qualifier to capture a Grand Slam title with a straight-sets defeat of Canada's Leylah Fernandez in the US Open women's final. Raducanu, 18, was the first British woman in 44 years to win a Slam crown after beating 73rd-ranked 19-year-old left-hander Fernandez in straight sets.

NEW YORK: Great Britain's Emma Raducanu, who had made her tour-level main-draw debut in Nottingham just three months ago, emerged the new US Open women's champion, defeating 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada 6-4, 6-3 in an all-teenage final to win her first Grand Slam title and her first tour-level title overall on Sunday (IST).

The 18-year-old British teenager had a perfect three weeks in New York. She made it through three rounds of qualifying without the loss of a set, was equally composed in her main-draw debut, where she also did not drop a set in seven matches.

She is the first woman to win the US Open without dropping a set since Serena Williams in 2014. Raducanu is also the youngest Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova of Russia won the 2004 Wimbledon aged 17.

Ranked world No.150, Raducanu is the lowest-ranked player to win the US Open title since an unranked Kim Clijsters of Belgium earned the first major of her comeback in Flushing Meadows in 2009. Raducanu is projected to reach a world ranking of 23 on Monday.

Raducanu also makes history by becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles title -- she had already become the first qualifier to make a Grand Slam final on Thursday.

She is also the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title in over 40 years. Virginia Wade triumphed on home soil at Wimbledon 1977, the year of the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Wade is the only other British woman to reach a US Open final in the Open Era, when the she won the first of her three Grand Slam singles titles in New York in 1968.

As she had in all of her previous matches here, Raducanu eased through two sets mixing power and precision that belied her lack of experience at this level. Against world No.73 Fernandez, Raducanu had 22 winners to Fernandez's 18, while firing one fewer unforced error than the Canadian.

Fernandez continued to use her tremendous court coverage and timing to extend rallies past their breaking points and win games other players might not have, as she saved 14 of the 18 break points she faced in the match. IANS

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