Fernandez just ran out of gas
this time.
“It was definitely a very tough match for the both of us,” Fernandez told her post-match press conference. “I unfortunately made one too many mistakes in key moments and she took advantage of it. Emma played a great tournament, so congratulations to her and her team.”
An hour later, oh yeah, the reality was pinching.
“Well, right now it has sunk in. I am still disappointed. I think this loss, I’m going to carry it for a very long time. I think it will motivate me to do better in training, better for the next opportunity I get. But, no, I’m happy with myself, with the way I competed … the way I acted on the court the past two weeks. I’ve improved a lot not only tennis-wise but emotionally and mentally.”
Asked what she’d learned of herself through this odyssey,
she responded: “One thing that really surprised me was that the more I’m more outgoing on the court and that I try to get the crowd involved, the more I’m playing well.” When younger, she’d always tried to be calm and contained, like Roger Federer. “I’m glad that I discovered that of myself, that I play a lot better when I’m more — not motivated, but when I’m more outgoing and when I’m using the crowd to my advantage.”
A round of jolly good and well done, though, for Raducanu.
She is the champion after all, and was the superior player with her extraordinary speed and ball-instincts. Coming out of qualifiers, world-ranked No. 150 on Aug. 23 and No. 383 before Wimbledon in June, her maiden major. Didn’t drop a set in seven main draw matches — first to do it since Serena Williams in 2014 — and three qualies before that. Youngest titlist since a 17-year-old Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004.
The “unprecedented” footnotes could go on from here to tomorrow, for both of these remarkable young women. It should be noted, however, that Raducanu had a far easier draw and didn’t face a top-10 player at any point of her progression while Fernandez had her hands full, knocking off former world No. 1s in defending champion Naomi Osaka and three-time Slam champion Angelique Kerber, No. 5 Elina Svitolina and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, enduring threesetters in her previous four matches.
There just wasn’t a whole lot left in the tank.
Enough, however, for a valiant bid to break Raducanu serving for the match in the ninth game of the second set, at 5-3. Had the Brit careening around the court, and got her on the ropes at 30-40, when Raducanu slid to reach a ball and scraped her knee. Trickling blood to her ankle, Raducanu called for a medical timeout, which took an awful long time — but below the fiveminute limit — for a fat bandage to be affixed. When play resumed, the momentum had been lost for Fernandez. The score went back to deuce and a third championship point for Raducanu. She didn’t miss.
“I honestly did not know what was happening with Emma,” said Fernandez. “I didn’t know how serious her fall was.”
She did express some consternation to the chair umpire as the minutes went by, a touch of temper revealed: “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.”
Maybe it was a bit of a tactical manoeuvre by Raducanu. She need to quell any Fernandez surge. Ultimately, it was a closer thing than the scoreline indicated: 22 winners for Raducanu versus 18 for Fernandez, and fewer unforced errors. The Canadian saved 14 of 18 break points but got fewer looks at Raducanu’s second serve while having chronic issues with her own first serve, taking only 56 per cent of points on her first delivery. That wasn’t the Fernandez who’d been on display throughout the tournament, when the precision of her serve had confounded opponents.
In the taut and immensely entertaining 58-minute first set, an early break for 2-0 set the rhythm for Raducanu. Fernandez repeatedly navigated herself out of trouble as both players went for their shots on ripping groundstrokes and risky volleys at the net, which racked up the error tally but also created more eyepopping winners. Another break for Raducanu to seal the set, easing herself comfortably into the match and, at the end, emphatically into the winner’s circle.
They’d known each other in juniors, these two, and will doubtless become even more mutually familiar in years to come. Still, nothing can duplicate these extraordinary circumstances.
Fernandez: “I want to be back here next year, only with the right trophy.”