It is a comet called, who knows, to continue its thunderous route towards the summits and to shine in the midst of the most beautiful stars of this sport.
On a last ace, Emma Raducanu stretched out on the ground for a short time, before straightening up and contemplating the magnitude of her feat.
The 18-year-old Briton won the US Open by dominating (6-4, 6-3) in the final the Canadian Leylah Fernandez, 19, this Saturday night in New York.
She thus became the first player from qualifying to win a Grand Slam title and also the youngest since Russian Maria Sharapova who won Wimbledon at 17 in 2004. Her feat is all the more impressive as Raducanu, 150th in the world. , took everything in her path, leaving no crumbs to her opponents: she won her ten games, qualifying included, by 20 sets to 0. The last to have achieved such a "perfect" at the US Open was Serena Williams in 2014.
Emma Raducanu's storybook run ends with the 🏆 in New York!
pic.twitter.com/esLsw4TQNY
- US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
In front of her was Fernandez (73rd), the other sensation of the New York fortnight, who, failing to have swept away his rivals, managed to reverse very compromised situations, at the expense of yet seasoned opponents. .
She had thus blocked the road of three of the five best players in the world: the Japanese Naomi Osaka (3rd) winner last year, the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (5th) then the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2nd).
She went it alone
But this time, she couldn't do anything against Raducanu, whom she found for the first time in the pros, three years after her loss to the Briton in the second round of the Wimbledon junior tournament in 2018. The context was obviously everything. another, in the heart of Arthur Ashe's cauldron and its 23,000 electric fans, including Billie Jean King, one of the greatest champions of all time who must have enjoyed seeing the tennis of tomorrow come to light before her eyes.
Raducanu was, as expected, the most aggressive in this final, like this successful entry break, taking advantage of the feverishness in the service of his opponent who will continue to pay the dear price during this meeting. After 58 highly contested minutes, the Briton made the difference on opposing service, with a superb uncrossed forehand and pocketed the first set (6-4). She then went it alone, not even troubled by a slip that grated her left knee and forced her to a medical time out.
A star was born in Flushing Meadows who no one saw coming, except perhaps observers who remember that at Wimbledon this summer she reached the round of 16, then receiving an invitation. She had then given up at this stage, suffocated by the stake, victim of respiratory problems. This time, she had no trouble flying away.
