Teenagers set to face off in historic Grand Slam final
NEW YORK — Two teenage women who were barely known to anyone other than the most devout tennis fans before this U.S. Open will vie for the singles championship on Saturday in what has to be the most improbable matchup for a Grand Slam final since the modern era of tennis began more than 50 years ago.
On a Thursday night that would have been shocking had Emma Raducanu of Britain and Leylah Fernandez of Canada not been pulling rabbits out of their hats for the better part of two weeks, the two teenage sensations once again knocked off seasoned pros who exist in a different stratosphere in the world rankings.
First, Fernandez outlasted the second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in three sets, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4, in a nervy, error-filled match that saw both players let go of chances to put the battle away long before Sabalenka finished herself off with one last flurry of double faults. It was Fernandez’s fourth consecutive three-set win over one of the top 20 players in the world.
Then Raducanu took the stage at Arthur Ashe Stadium and did what she has been doing for more than a week — blitzing players far more accomplished and making them play their worst matches of the tournament. Raducanu ambushed 17th-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-1, 6-4.
Raducanu, ranked 150th in the world, had to play three matches in the qualifying tournament just to get into the main draw. Including those three matches, she has now faced nine opponents in New York and has yet to drop a set. She is the first qualifier to reach the final of the U.S. Open in the Open era.
Both Raducanu, 18, and Fernandez, 19, have captivated the crowds in New York and pumped new life into the women’s tour that has been struggling to deal with the loss of its biggest star, Serena Williams, to age and injuries, and its newest one, Naomi Osaka, to her struggles with mental illness.
Fernandez, ranked 73rd, continued a stunning run that has included victories over the second, third, fifth and 16th seeded players in the tournament. She beat Osaka and Angelique Kerber, the winners of a combined seven Grand Slam singles titles, then knocked off Elina Svitolina, who is considered one of the best players never to have won a Grand Slam tournament.
Then came Sabalenka, one of the world’s biggest hitters and its secondranked player.
In Fernandez, though, Sabalenka ran into a player who seems to have convinced herself that she cannot be beaten, that if she can just keep getting the ball back over the net with her brand of power and spin, somehow the match will break her way.
It took two hours and 21 minutes to for that moment to come, when she finished off the win, thanks to two ill-timed double faults from Sabalenka and one last error sailing off the court.
“I don’t know how I did that,” Fernandez said.