Raducanu one of five British women to make US Open

PERHAPS it is an early sign of a Raducanu effect — for the first time in nearly 30 years Britain will have five female players in the first round of a non-Wimbledon Grand Slam.

Middlesex’s Harriet Dart won a late night, rain-interrupted final qualifying round in the early hours of yesterday to make it a hat-trick of those coming through the tough preliminary event.

Dart joined Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter in winning the three required matches by beating Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 to take her place in the main draw. With Jo Konta and Heather Watson automatically qualified, that made it five British women, the highest number outside SW19 since the 1992 Australian Open. Three GB men — Andy Murray, Cam Norrie and Dan Evans — will also compete in the singles.

The qualifiers had to wait until late Friday night to find out who they would face, with Raducanu landing a tough opponent in world No 14 Jennifer Brady. Boulter will face Russia’s Liudmilla Samsonova, who had an excellent season on grass, while Dart will tackle France’s Caroline Garcia, who has fallen outside the top 50 after once being world No 4.