Emma Raducanu Wins 2021 US Open Title

Emma Raducanu has won the 2021 Women's Singles US Open title after beating fellow teenager Leylah Fernandez at Flushing Meadows. The eighteen year old won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3 to claim the title and make history by becoming the first qualifier to win a major tennis title.

Having been ranked 338 in the world, Raducanu was awarded a wildcard in to the main draw and reached the fourth round in her major debut. A couple of months later she entered the qualifying competition for this year's tournament. She then became the first qualifier male or female to reach and win a Grand Slam singles final.

Raducanu turned professional in 2018 when she alternated between the Juniors and WTA tournaments during 2018 and 2019. Last year she took part in a series of exhibition matches and small tournaments in the United Kingdom. In December she won the LTA Tour British Masters title . She also devoted her time to her academic studies preparing for her A-Levels which she took in 2021.

In late June, Raducanu made her main draw Grand Slam debut on a wildcard to the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. She advanced to the third round with initial victories overVitalia Diatchenko and Markéta Vondroušová. She was the youngest British woman to reach the Wimbledon third round since Elena Baltacha in 2002, also as an 18-year-old. She then defeated Sorana Cîrstea to reach the fourth round, becoming, at 18 years and 239 days old, the youngest British woman to reach the last 16 in the Open Era, and guaranteeing a top-185 in WTA rankings, having been at world No. 338 at the start of Wimbledon. On 5 July 2021, Raducanu retired in the second set of her fourth round match against Ajla Tomljanović, owing to breathing difficulty.

In recognition of her victory, Raducanu is set to be honoured by the queen in this year's New Year's honours list. This will be a great honour for her at such a young age and will help inspire other youngsters to believe in what they do and know that if they try hard enough, they can achieve anything and be rewarded for it.

Even though the US Open was a major sporting event being broadcast on Channel 4, the channels viewing figures were dwarfed by those of the England Football teams route to the Euro 2020 Final. This is proof that even though this was a major sporting final, to draw in a larger audience and attract more exposure for players, advertisers etc. the final would have had to have been broadcast on the BBC or ITV which are the more mainstream channels that more people are likely to be able to watch.

Bold statement by Virginia Wade

In tennis or in anything you can't expect there to be a real, legitimate star every year or every two years. When you think of the young stars that there have been all the way back to Maureen Connolly, their reputations went ahead of them - if it was Chris Evert or Tracy Austin, and certainly Martina and Steffi.

Steffi was brilliant at 18. She just came on the scene and you knew she was going to just keep going forward winning everything. And of course Serena.

You get the same sort of feeling with Emma that she's just better than her contemporaries and better than probably a lot of her seniors and she's the exception who's going to go forward.

We know that there's going to be a lot to contend with and especially in the next year. Wimbledon I think is much harder for an English person anyway. Expectation is going to be quite weighty.

Former world No 7 Barbara Schett reacts

Emma Raducanu has done it. She is the US Open champion 2021 and the youngest champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004 won Wimbledon. And she is the first qualifier to have done it. It’s amazing how she kept it together.

She is having good times not only in matches, but she felt so comfortable in the trophy ceremony. Now she has that big smile we all love so much on her face once again.

Her life will definitely change and we will see so many more victories from her, that’s for sure.