RADU-CAN-U BELIEVE IT!
History in the making as British teen tennis star wins place in US Open semis
EMMA Raducanu continued her history-making march at the US Open last night.
The teenage tennis sensation swept into the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows with an impressive victory over Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
Her fairytale run means she is the first British woman into the last four in New York since Jo Durie in 1983.
The straight sets win over the 11th seed ensures the biggest pay-day of her career, guaranteeing her at least £490,000 in prize money. It also means she will become Britain’s No 1 and be just outside the world’s top 50.
The 18-year-old, from Bromley, south-east London, will aim to go one better in her semi-final tonight, a match due on court at midnight against either Czech fourth seed Karolina Pliskova – this year’s losing finalist at Wimbledon – or Greek 17th seed Maria Sakkari.
Emma was an unknown ranked 338 in the world when she entered Wimbledon in June, straight after completing her A-levels. She captivated the nation with a run to the fourth round before being forced to quit through illness. She now has her eyes on emulating the great Virginia Wade, the last British woman to win the US Open – in 1968, nine years before she won Wimbledon.
Miss Wade predicted that Emma is ‘in that handful who will be dominating tennis’ in the coming years.
Having fought through three qualifying rounds to reach the main draw of the US Open, Emma marked her victory against Miss Bencic, 24, by clasping her head with her hands in a mixture of shock and celebration. A smile broke out as her achievement sank in.
As the crowd clapped and cheered, she told them: ‘I am so happy to come through and thank you so much for all your support today. To have so many young players here doing so well shows how strong the next generation is – everyone is on their trajectory, so I am just here doing what I can control and it is my own journey.’
During a tense final game, she had looked over at former player Tim Henman in the stands, who shouted: ‘Two more points and you’ll be fine.’
After the game, he said: ‘This was a significant step up in class. She thoroughly deserves to be in the semi-finals.’
Former British player Mark Petchey said: ‘Emma Raducanu is fast becoming the queen of Queens. In a city that never sleeps, she is putting her name up in lights.’
‘Putting her name up in lights’
EMMA RADUCANU became the first qualifier in history to make the US Open semi-finals last night — nearly two weeks after her flights home were booked.
The expectation for the 18-year-old from Kent was to fly back once the preliminary event was over. Now she is into the last four after knocking out Olympic champion Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4 here at Flushing Meadows.
‘I didn’t expect to be here — my flights were booked at the end of qualifying, so it’s a nice problem to have,’ she said.
Raducanu is closing in on one of the most astonishing triumphs ever in tennis, less than four months after taking her A-levels. She plays again later tonight.
It all comes despite the long break she took from ranking tournaments, due to a
combination of the pandemic and her exams. ‘I didn’t compete for 18 months, but here I am, and it just shows that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible. ‘I have a hunger to win every single match I play, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself at all. When you’re playing tournaments, you just get into this sort of autopilot mode of your routines, recovering on the day off in between. ‘Out there on the court today, I was saying to myself, “This could be the last time I play on the Arthur Ashe Stadium, so I might as well just go for it and enjoy everything”.’ Raducanu said that she had only been in limited contact with her parents Ian and Renee, who are unable to travel to the US due to travel restrictions. ‘It’s not possible, because you need a waiver and it takes a couple weeks for approval,’ she explained. ‘It’s too late, and they won’t be able to get one.’ However, she credited them with the remarkable composure that was again on show last night. ‘I think that the calmness and the mental strength definitely comes from my upbringing,’ she said. ‘My parents have both instilled in me from a very young age to have a positive attitude on court. ‘When I was younger, it was definitely an absolute no-go if I had any sort of bad attitude.
So from a young age, I learnt that and it’s followed me.’ Two more victories would see her emulate Andy Murray’s title run here from 2012. She cited him as one of her role models yesterday, saying: ‘Andy has quite often spoken to me, and I actually hit with him two times, which was really good for me to see his ball speed and how good he is.’ Raducanu fell behind in the first set last night and admitted that she had to come to terms, initially, with the highest-ranked player she had ever played. ‘It took me some adjusting at the beginning to get used to her ball speed and how aggressive she was. Once I adjusted, and didn’t over-press too much, I settled in.’