Emma Radocano makes tennis history by winning US Open final | US Open Tennis Championship 2021

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There are several key milestones that Emma Radocano has yet to score in a professional tennis career that began only three months ago. You have never been a direct participant in the Grand Slam draw, have yet to play a Tier 3 Tour match and have not even won a match on the WTA Tour event.

But sometimes a special player comes along and makes the agreement irrelevant. Three weeks later and one of the most exciting races in living memory, Radocano has positioned herself as a Grand Slam champion forever. Finished the US Open where it started: Fearlessly dominated from inside the baseline as she defeated Leila Annie Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 in an intense match to win the title without losing a set.

This is the second time Raducanu’s main draw has appeared in a Grand Slam, and no women in the Open Era have won in such a few attempts. Beyond that distinction is the list of seemingly endless numbers: Radocano is the first British woman to win a Grand Slam title since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. She is the first qualified woman, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam title. At the age of 18, she was the youngest Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004.

Since the start of their first teenage slam final 22 years ago, both players have refused to be moved by the moment. Throughout the first set they wrestled the baseline from each other, defending with elite movement and saturating every match with intense power. Raducanu started the match by controlling early exchanges by constantly changing direction from both flanks, and she set the tone by capturing the winner with a backhand kick into the field in the opener.

Emma Raducano serves Lila Fernandez. Photo: Frank Franklin II/The Associated Press

Having carried the transmission, Raducanu immediately forced herself into a comeback, breaking her sixth breaking point. But Fernandez responded with a stifling rematch, breaking again on her fourth break point with a 2-1 score. After 22 long minutes of intensity, they only fought three matches.

When she faced her toughest opponents in the tournament, Radocano at times felt visibly frustrated with her level as Fernandez’s defense made mistakes that her other competitors could not. But as the group went on, she once again began to dominate key points with her firepower from both wings.

Raducanu made her run at 5-4 with a series of throttle returns, capturing a backhand across the field to bring in a double set point. Fernandez saved both, including with an audacious series of forehands and then Radocano’s miss in the third. But Raducanu stayed on top of the baseline. She hit with a winning forehand from the inside out to get the fourth set point and then sent out another big forehand to take the set.

Momentum continued to move the direction of Radocano as she rose to a 6-4, 1-0, 0-40 lead on Fernandes’ serve. But with her back against the wall, the Canadian came forward and swung freely. She saved all three and then used the momentum to break 2-1. Raducanu responded immediately, calling for her massive return from serve and breaking again with an angled win in the second leg across the court. Having maintained her serve, she played a ballistic rematch and again broke 4-2 with a consecutive forehand.

The two match points came shortly after Radocano tied 5-2, but both times she hit nervous forehands and missed. Fernandez, intensified in battle by four successive settlers, began the last trench charge. She kept serving and then gained momentum when she attacked Radocano’s serve. At 30-30, she put her opponent on the ropes and delivered a winning forehand, but when the British slipped toward a defensive backhand, she nurtured her left knee as she slipped.

Raducano was bleeding, as a result of which the score was 6-4, 5-3 and a break point collapsed in the biggest match of her life, she had to take a medical timeout. Fernandez, who had the momentum, wasn’t unsurprisingly upset and when they finally appealed, she immediately made a forehand at breaking point.

But then it created another stopping point, asking Raducanu one last question. Under the ultimate Grand Slam pressure that stifled so many top players throughout the year, Raducanu’s reaction said all there was to know about her determination and composure. She saved the second breaking point on the front foot with an overhead winner at the top of her reach, then drilled a backhand on the line to bring up the match point. I served him with an ace, in front of a crowd including Wade.

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When Raducanu arrived in New York three weeks ago, there was some caution about her physical condition after an intense few weeks on the road on her first-ever long trip away from home to compete. Her tours were booked for the qualifying weekend because missing out on any tour would have been a completely natural outcome and a valuable learning experience given her scarcity of experience.

However, in her fourth tour-level event only, she left New York as champion. Having started the summer at 366th and 12th British female athletes, Raducanu is now number 23 in the world. Her career earnings at the start of the summer were $35,185, but she earned $2,500,000 (£1.8 million) in three weeks.

With each new challenge I faced, I learned and adapted in the moment, unlocking new qualities against some of the best tennis players in the world. It has improved in a few weeks as some have improved in years and there is much more to come.

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