US Open: "Anyone who would have bet on this final could have made a fortune"
The women's tournament at the US Open 2021 produced an absolutely sensational final. The two teenagers Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez have turned the tennis world upside down in the past 14 days.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit:
Sep 10, 2021, 02:35 pm
No spectators were in attendance at 11th place at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center on August 25, when Emma Raducanu's US Open mission began rather discreetly. Almost unnoticed, she won her first qualifying game against the Dutchman Bibiane Schoofs in two straight sets this Wednesday. Two and a half weeks later, Raducanu is still busy in the Big Apple, and never in the history of major tournaments has a title campaign lasted longer than with the 18-year-old British, who was the very first starter in the tennis world to pull off to fight through the qualification to the finals. “It's a shock. It's absolutely crazy, ”said Raducanu, rightly so, when she won her semi-final game against Greek Maria Sakkari 6-1 and 6-4 on Thursday evening.
In front of a full house, Raducanu (18) will meet 19-year-old Canadian Leylah Fernandez in an unlikely teenage final on Saturday (7: 6, 4: 6, 6: 4 against Sabalenka / Belarus). This cup duel is not a sensation because the number 150 in the world rankings (Raducanu) will compete against number 73. But because this final brings together by far the two best, most courageous, most nervous and creative players of a spectacular tournament - two young women who appeared again and again as if they had belonged to the elite group of the scene for many years. When Raducanu and Fernandez follow the protagonists of the last teenage finals in the Big Apple, Serena Williams and Martina Hingis in 1999, the traveling circus can still be prepared for a lot. "It's been unbelievable fun with both of them so far," said Billie Jean King, the founder of modern women's tennis, "this tournament is already making an excellent mark in the history of our sport."
Fernandez knocks out favorites
Before the US Open 2021, there were still complaints about the absence of the big names, about the looming, rather sad farewell to the long-time heroes and heroines - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the two Williams sisters Serena and Venus, formative figures in New York and elsewhere had all canceled their start due to injuries. But the somewhat wistful mood before the qualifying games in Flushing Meadows quickly evaporated, also and precisely because of the refreshment of blood, which no one more than Fernandez and Raducanu embodied. Raducanu rushed from the loneliness of her application matches, held on the periphery of the Grand Slam area, into the limelight of the largest tennis stadium in the world, the Arthur Ashe Arena, in three qualifying and six main field games, she has not yet given a single set. “When you're so young, you have an advantage: You don't think too much about everything. About what you could lose, ”says the 18-year-old, who was born in Canada to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother and who moved to England with her parents when she was two.
Fernandez, born to an Ecuadorian father and a Filipino mother, went an even tougher, but equally consistent path to the cup match in New York. She didn’t have to go through the difficulties of qualifying, but first-class opponents piled up in rows in the main draw. But whoever tried to slow down the young Canadian failed more or less impressively - Naomi Osaka, the defending champion, fell by the wayside. Then Angelique Kerber, the US Open Queen of 2016. Then Elina Switolina, number 5 in the world rankings. And finally, in the semifinals, Aryna Sabalenka, number 2 in the pecking order. “My attitude is: I can do anything I plan to do. There is no limit if I believe in myself, ”says the 19-year-old.
Fernandez and Raducanu met three years ago in the second round of the Wimbledon junior women’s competition (Raducanu won in two sets), now they are both fighting for the Grand Slam victory in New York. “It's an absolutely crazy story. Anyone who would have bet on this final could have made a small fortune, ”says Chris Evert, the American tennis legend.