17 year old Emma Raducanu made history when she became the first qualifier to win the US Open, the last Grand Slam event of the year. She is also the lowest ranked player (150th in the world before this win) to win the US Open as well as the first British woman in 44 years to win any Grand Slam. She beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the final last Saturday in New York.
This was Emma’s first year playing the Grand Slams, the four most important tennis tournaments of the year. In June she was given a wildcard to play Wimbledon where she managed to beat two Top 50 players to make it to the second week of the Slam. The Wimbledon performance was enough to get her a chance to play the US Open qualifiers, a chance she grabbed to make history.
Even outside of the four Grand Slams, Emma Raducanu does not have too much experience or many wins. But at the US Open she played like a champion, winning 10 games in a row without losing a set.
Winning at tennis didn’t mean that she gave up on studies. She has just finished her A-level exams this year (equal to 12th standard in India), where she received top grades – an ‘A’ both math and economics. She thinks studies are important. “Everyone thinks I’m absolutely fanatic about my school results,” Raducanu said during Wimbledon, according to news report. “Actually, I would say I have high standards of myself. That’s helped me get to where I am in terms of tennis and also in terms of school results.”
Emma Raducanu may have made history but another player missed his shot at a rare record. Novak Djokovic (left in the image) lost the men’s singles final to Daniil Medvedev, thereby missing a chance to win a calendar slam. Djokovic has already won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon in 2021. Winning at the US Open would have made the first player since 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles in a single year, also called a calendar Slam. Had he won, it would have also taken Djokovic to a record 21 Grand Slam titles as well. Now, he, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are tied with 20 titles each.
