REMARKABLE
Move over Murray – Raducanu
EMMA RADUCANU has already ended Britain’s spell in the tennis doldrums. Incredible but true. Just as the nation’s racket-wielding fans were getting used to Sir Andy Murray no longer competing for the sport’s biggest prizes, along comes this extraordinary female teenage talent – out of nowhere – to completely change the landscape.
Win or defeat in New York last night made no difference. British tennis has a new, genuine, worldclass talent who can take the sport forwards in the national consciousness once again.
Raducanu, 18, gave us more than a glimpse of what might be further down the road with her wonderful Wimbledon run (right) earlier this summer.
Maybe the inevitable drought post three-time
Grand Slam champion
Murray would not last quite as long as first feared.
Give it some time and we might have a true WTA superstar competing at the top for years to come.
Certainly, nobody of sane mind thought that could possibly happen within 60 days of her SW19 heroics, which had ended abruptly in the fourth round with injury and breathing issues that left the girl with the brightest of smiles in tears.
Some clueless observers immediately condemned her defeat, as seems the norm now when issues arise, as ‘snowflake-like’.
Well, those snipers have now been dismissed amid a blur of sizzling, sensational wins at the US Open.
Raducanu not only silenced the doubters by not dropping a set en route to the women’s final at Flushing Meadow.
She not only made them eat those cruel, social media posts by becoming the first qualifier – man or woman – to reach a Grand Slam final.
Nope. She positively slammed them all right back down the critics’ big-mouth throats.
The outcome of last night’s showdown in New York versus
Canada’s Leylah Fernandez – just 19 and another amazingly fast-rising tennis teen queen – made no difference.
According to those in the know. Raducanu is the real deal.
Take Anne Keothavong’s first memory of her. Keothavong had just finished her own playing career when she first hit with an 11-year old Raducanu.
“I was completing my coaching levels and got to use Emma as my guinea pig to go through my drills. I had to play flat-out against her even at that age,” recalled Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup captain.
“That’s how good she was then. She’s such a fantastic player and a fantastic person.”
Between Wimbledon and her unprecedented nine-match Big Apple blitz from qualifier to finalist, Raducanu secured A grades in maths and economics A-levels.
Brainy off the court, as well as on it.
No wonder Toronto-born Raducanu, whose parents moved to England when she was two, dismantles higher-ranked rivals with such mesmerising speed and simplicity.
Her lethal groundstrokes off both wings, her graceful, lightning pace across the court, her powerful serve and exquisite touch at the net are all matched by this steely, match-play sharpness up top.
Jo Durie, US Open semi-finalist in 1983, believes the brief break to concentrate on those academic studies was perfect as it gave Raducanu a break from the spotlight following Wimbledon.
“I think that has probably helped Emma – to step away for a bit and do something else,” said the former British No.1.
“The way she is playing now is down to those years and years of hard work and relentless determination to improve. It’s fantastic to see. Just amazing.”
Fasten the seat belts, folks.the transition at the top of British tennis from Murray to Raducanu is as swift as it is seamless.