Emma Raducanu carved out a slice of tennis history that perhaps will never ever be replicated as she became the first player to win a major tournament as a player who needed to enter the main draw via the qualifying tournaments when she won the 2021 U.S. Open women’s singles title.
Ranked No. 150 and playing in only her second major tournament of her career, the 18-year-old Brit defeated No. 73-ranked Leylah Fernandez of Canada, 19, 6-3, 6-4 in the first ever U.S. Open final played between unseeded women and the first all-teenager U.S. final since Serena Williams beat Martina Hingis in 1999.
Raducanu became the first woman from Britain to win the U.S. Open since Virginia Wade in 1977.
Raducanu did not lose a set en route the championship – a feat not done since Serena Williams in 2014 – but she also did not lose a set in the three qualifying round matches she won just to enter the main draw. That’s 20-0 in sets in her three week run of 10 victories at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center.
Previously, the best finish by a player at a major event at a major event was the semifinals, and at the U.S. Open, it was the quarterfinals. However, Raducanu was the first to reach a final, let alone win a title.
