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09/11/2021 7:43 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 9/11/2021 7:44 PM
Emma Raducanu
spent her time
making history
at the US Open.
So much so that he ended up lifting the trophy in an unexpected final against
Leylah Fernández
by beating her in the surprising definition by 6-4 and 6-3, in one hour and 51 minutes.
A result that even she did not seem to believe possible: she had tickets back to Great Britain dated at the end of the qualifying round.
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 was all new to her. And from the beginning of her journey in New York, no one could figure out how to stop her.
Not even to snatch a set
.
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 against the Swiss
Belinda Bencic
, eleventh favorite and winner of the Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020. But she also acknowledged: "I always thought that if you believe in yourself, nothing is impossible."
A dream come true for @EmmaRaducanu 🏆 pic.twitter.com/gAYrRBlh4t
- US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
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
.
He also tried
motocross
.
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.
Motivated by her them, Raducanu always pushed herself a lot, 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 a talk with the media. the WTA.
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.
AFP photo
"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
).
Emma Raducanu, about to receive the trophy from legend Billie Jean King.
AFP photo
"
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 scored victories against the Swiss
Stefanie Voegele
, the Chinese
Shuai Zhang
, the Spanish
Sara Sorribes,
the American
Shelby Roger
, the aforementioned Bencic, the Greek
Maria Sakkari
in the semifinal and the Canadian
Leylah Fernández
in the very final.
The walk of a champion @EmmaRaducanu |
#USOpen pic.twitter.com/aOvcNRGkS8
- US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
The Briton won all
20 sets she played
in ten 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 first since qualifying to play the final in the Open Era. .
Logically, now it is
the first to arrive from there and rise with the title.
"
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 lies ahead," defined the British in a statement of principles.
And 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 led 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. "
Bad, obviously, it was not.
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"