Luciana Aranguiz placeholder image
09/08/2021 15:42
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 09/08/2021 18:26
In another display of poise from someone with a lot of experience, Britain's
Emma Raducanu became the first player to emerge from qualification to make it into the US Open semifinals in the Open Era
and the second teenager in two days. a gap in the top four after defeating Olympic champion Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.
Raducanu landed in Flushing Meadows for just
his second Grand Slam tournament with a ranking so low that he had to circumvent the preliminary phase
to be able to enter the main
draw
.
She is barely 18 years old, so this is all new to her.
Since the beginning of her journey in New York, no one has been able to figure out how to stop her.
Not even to snatch a set
.
PURE DISBELIEF @EmmaRaducanu |
#USOpen pic.twitter.com/TG7vCWMuaa
- US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 8, 2021
No one, not herself, imagined that she would reach this stage in the tournament.
"I had a ticket to go home at the end of qualifying!
Although that is a nice problem to have to solve," said the British after her victory in the quarterfinals.
But she also acknowledged: "I always thought that if you believe in yourself, nothing is impossible."
And if there is something that Raducanu has to spare, it is self-confidence, because she knows how hard she worked to get to the place she occupies today.
Born in Toronto
in November 2002,
but raised in London
, during her childhood she tried many sports and activities.
With his dad Ian (Romanian) he shared a love for mountain biking.
Her mother Renee (Chinese) took her to ballet classes.
But she found her place on the tennis courts.
Her parents let her go her way, but they always taught her to aim high.
"My mother always instilled in me the importance of having a lot of discipline in what one does and respecting others. The two always pushed me and placed high expectations on me," she commented a few months ago in an interview published by the WTA.
Raducanu was born in Toronto to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother, and grew up in London.
Photo Al Bello / Getty Images / AFP
Motivated by her parents, Raducanu always pushed herself hard, both on the tennis court and in the classroom.
So unlike many of her colleagues, Emma
never dropped out of school
and managed to excel with her racket and keep her grades high.
"Everyone who knows me
thinks I'm obsessed with my grades
. And I think my parents think I'm crazy, because I don't accept anything less than an A (the highest possible score)," she laughed in that talk with the association that governs the female circuit.
James Carlton
, the director of
the Bromley Tennis Center
, where Raducanu trained from ages 10 to 16, told British hip
Sky News
this year
that as a child, Emma showed great determination and dedication to both the sport and her studies.
Raducanu managed to stand out on the courts without neglecting his studies.
Photo EFE / EPA / JUSTIN LANE
"The center is close to her school, so she
came to train before, after and sometimes even during classes.
She was here every day. When she was on the court, she would drop everything. And between one training session and another, you would see her. doing homework or studying, "Carlton recalled.
Raducanu assured that this decision to continue with his academic training while working to improve his tennis ended up
giving him a bonus in his sports career.
"It has helped me to keep my mind active in those hours of the day when you are not on the court. And it also helps me in every game,
because I have a capacity to absorb a lot of information
and I feel that on the court I am more tactically astute
than other players, "he reflected.
The downside of splitting her days between tennis and school:
not having reached her full potential as a junior
, as she herself acknowledged.
In that first stage of her career, she reached the 20th step of the ITF world ranking in 2018, the year in which she achieved her best performances in Grand Slams in that category: she reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon (she lost to the Polish
Iga Swiatek
) and in New York (with the French
Clara Burel
).
As a junior, he reached 20th place in the ITF world rankings.
Photo Elsa / Getty Images / AFP
"
Sometimes I would get frustrated when I saw other players my age improve
and start reaping great results. And I thought: 'I wish I had the opportunity to compete like this, maybe I could do the same.'
That's why I always feel that when they give you an opportunity, you have to take advantage of it, "he said.
His explosion on the WTA circuit
She did this a few months ago
when she received a
wild card
for the Wimbledon main draw, which was her second tournament at the WTA level (she had entered Nottingham as a guest, a month before, where she lost in the first round) and her absolute debut in a Grand Slam.
It was out of the top 300 of the ranking and ended up making history.
Because she became the youngest Briton to reach the fourth round of the tournament in the Open Era - she left at that time suffering from shortness of breath - and the new sensation of the women's circuit.
And she did so once again in New York, where she arrived with more confidence than ever, after playing
her first WTA final in Chicago
at the end of August
.
She started in qualifying with triumphs against Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands, Mariam Bolkvadze of Georgia and Maiar Sherif of Egypt.
And in the main draw she stacked victories against the Swiss
Stefanie Voegele
, the Chinese
Shuai Zhang
, the Spanish
Sara Sorribes
and the American
Shelby Roger
, to come face to face with Bencic.
Against Bencic, the first top 40 he faced in his career, he turned around a 1-3 deficit.
Photo EFE / EPA / JOHN G. MABANGLO
Against the Swiss,
eleventh favorite and the first rival of the top 40 that she faced in her career
, the British started losing 3-1, but turned the process around with a break to a rival who had barely yielded her serve three times in her four previous games.
He chained five games in a row to head to victory.
"That so many boys and girls are doing so well here shows how strong the next generation is," said Raducanu, who emulated the feat of Canadian
Leylah Fernández by
settling into the semifinals.
Fernández had advanced to that instance on Tuesday, the day after his 19th birthday.
Raducanu will face off on Thursday against Czech
Karolina Pliskova
or Greek
Maria Sakkari
for a place in the final.
The other semifinal on Thursday will be animated by the aforementioned Fernández, 73 in the ranking, against the world number two,
Aryna Sabalenka
.
🇬🇧 @EmmaRaducanu: The third woman ranked outside the top 100 to reach a #USOpen semi-final 💫
The other two?
Unranked @Clijsterskim in 2009 and unranked @BillieJeanKing in 1979.
Unreal company 🤯 pic.twitter.com/eerhB7ZPdA
- Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) September 8, 2021
The British has taken
all 16 sets she has played
in eight matches during the last two weeks of her stay in New York.
Thus she became only
the third woman outside the Top 100 to advance to the
US Open
semifinals
, after Billie Jean King (1979) and Kim Clijsters (2009).
And
the fourth player from qualifying to reach that stage in a Grand Slam in the Open Era
, adding her name to those of Christine Dorey (Australian Open 1978), Alexandra Stevenson (Wimbledon 1999) and Nadia Podoroska (Roland Garros 2020) .
"
I have no idea of any of the records, nor am I here to achieve those marks.
I only take care of what I can do at the moment and in the game that I have ahead," said the British.
He added: "So far, I think it has worked very well for me not to anticipate events and focus on one point at a time. That has brought me to this stage, and I am not going to change anything. I like to go day by day. Although we could say that
I am always hungry to win every game
I play. "
Look also
US Open: Canadian Leylah Fernández got into the semis and is the sensation of the tournament
Del Potro reappeared at the US Open and spoke of his future: "Tennis is waiting for me"