Few sporting victories have captured the imagination of the British public quite like Emma Raducanu’s run to the 2021 US Open title. The teenager arrived in New York as a qualifier with very little expectation of going deep into the tournament, yet three weeks later, she was a Grand Slam champion.
The scale of the upset was reflected in her pre-tournament odds. Raducanu was trading at around 400/1 to win the US Open, making her one of the most unlikely players in the draw to lift the trophy. She arrived in New York ranked 150th in the world and had never previously played at the US Open. Although she had reached the fourth round at Wimbledon just weeks earlier, this was only her second Grand Slam main-draw appearance.
EMMA RADUCANU IS THE US OPEN CHAMPION pic.twitter.com/chyac4ZP7F
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2021
A 400/1 Outsider
Raducanu had only recently broken onto the professional scene. She had started the summer of 2021 ranked 366th in the world and was the 12th-ranked British woman. Her career earnings stood at just $35,185, such was her limited experience at the top level of the sport.
When travelling across the Atlantic for the US Open, reaching the main draw was far from guaranteed. Raducanu had to overcome three qualifying matches to earn her place in the tournament proper. Winning all three comfortably, as she did without dropping a set, was already a significant achievement for an inexperienced 18-year-old with just one previous Grand Slam main-draw appearance.
But rather than stopping there, she began knocking out opponent after opponent. She won 10 matches in New York, including the three qualifying rounds, without dropping a single set. What started as an unlikely appearance quickly became one of the most extraordinary Grand Slam runs in tennis history.
From Wimbledon Breakthrough to US Open Qualifier
Raducanu did not arrive in New York completely unknown. Just weeks earlier, she had reached the fourth round of Wimbledon as a wildcard, becoming the youngest British woman in the Open Era to reach that stage. She then reached the final of the WTA 125 event in Chicago, but her ranking (150) still left her outside the US Open main draw.
That meant Raducanu had to start in qualifying, despite the attention she had attracted during her unexpected run at SW19. After beating three fellow qualifiers, the Brit defeated Stefanie Vögele, Zhang Shuai and Sara Sorribes Tormo before facing Shelby Rogers in the fourth round. She then breezed past Olympic champion and 11th seed Belinda Bencic in the quarter-finals and 17th seed Maria Sakkari in the semi-finals. How, though, did the underdog manage to overcome so many more established names?
Dominating from the Baseline
Raducanu’s success was not simply a case of an underdog getting lucky. Every victory was deserved as she played remarkably solid tennis with plenty of attacking intent. It was a case of doing the fundamentals really well, taking the ball early and regularly putting her opponents on the back foot.
Her first serve was particularly reliable. She landed 72% of first serves during the tournament, well above the tournament average of 63%. Even her second serve was delivered with unusual pace, averaging 93mph compared with the US Open average of 82mph. On top of this, Raducanu also excelled at returning her opponent’s serves. She regularly took second serves inside the baseline, giving her opponents very little time to react, doing so 93% of the time, compared with 47% for the average player at Flushing Meadows.
During rallies, the British teenager used her groundstrokes intelligently. Her forehand and backhand down the line repeatedly moved opponents into defensive positions, allowing Raducanu to dictate points rather than simply waiting for errors. That attacking approach became a defining feature of her run. Across all 10 matches, Raducanu spent a greater percentage of points in an offensive position than her opponent.
The Final Against Leylah Fernandez
The final against fellow underdog Leylah Fernandez was a fitting conclusion to Raducanu’s remarkable run. It was the first Grand Slam women’s singles final between teenagers in 22 years, but there was little sign of nerves from either player. Raducanu’s aggressive baseline game again proved effective as she took the ball early, moved Fernandez around the court and consistently looked to control the points.
Fernandez fought hard, particularly after falling behind in the second set, but Raducanu repeatedly responded whenever the Canadian threatened to turn the match. Even after slipping and requiring a medical timeout while serving for the championship, she held her composure and closed out a 6-4, 6-3 victory. It was a high-quality final in which Raducanu never allowed the occasion to overwhelm the attacking style that had carried her through the tournament.
The Significance of the Win
Unsurprisingly, an 18-year-old qualifier winning the US Open on her tournament debut set a remarkable list of records. Raducanu became the first qualifier, male or female, to win a Grand Slam singles title. At 18, she was the youngest Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004.
She also became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. Perhaps most remarkably, she achieved it in only her second Grand Slam main-draw appearance, something no woman had previously managed in the Open Era.
Incredibly, she managed all this without dropping a single set across her 10 matches (including qualifiers). All 20 sets she played went the way of the Brit. She dropped only 50 games in total, including 16 during qualifying and 34 in the main draw. Her final against Fernandez was also the first US Open women’s singles final between two unseeded players.
The statistics underline just how unusual the achievement was. Raducanu was ranked No. 150 when she won the title, making her the second-lowest-ranked woman to win the US Open since the rankings were introduced in 1975. The only woman to be lower was Kim Clijsters, who was unranked when she won the title for a second time in 2009, having returned to tennis after a two-year retirement.
The transformation in her ranking and earnings was just as dramatic. Having begun the tournament ranked 150th in the world, Raducanu finished the US Open as the world No. 23. Her career prize money had been $303,376 before arriving in New York, but her three-week run in New York earned her $2.5 million, plus plenty more in sponsorship deals.
Those figures put the 400/1 odds into context. Raducanu was not an established Grand Slam contender who produced an unexpected run. She was a first-time US Open competitor, a qualifier, an 18-year-old, and the No. 150 player in the world. Nobody expected her to have a realistic chance of winning the title, yet she ended up producing one of the most convincing Grand Slam runs in recent tennis history.