The two teenagers, Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez will compete against each other at the US Open final to claim their first grand slam title. UK’s Raducanu and Canadian Fernandez will play on Saturday at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where one of them is expected to win her first Grand slam title.
Raducanu has become the first teen to qualify for Grand Slam final and the youngest in 17 years. “I’m in the final, and I can’t actually believe it,” she said as reported by the AFP news agency. Raducanu, who intends to become the first UK woman to claim a Grand Slam title following Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977, had quitted mid-match in her fourth-round Wimbledon in July, saying she had unspecified health problems.
Former tennis champion John McEnroe and a few others had shown negative reactions when they claimed that the tennis superstar had retired because she could not manage the pressure of the event.
“Today, I wasn’t thinking about anyone else except for myself,” Raducanu declared after winning a game against Greek player Maria Sakkari on Thursday and qualifying for the final. British star Tim Henman has been one of Raducanu’s loyal supporters. “Tim is such a big inspiration,” Raducanu stated. “He has been helping me, take one point at a time. You have to stay in the moment and can’t get ahead of yourself.”
The UK player’s father is a Roman, while her mother is Chinese. The tennis champion has now led in nine games without dropping a set.
Nineteen-year-old Leylah Fernandez qualified for the final after defeating Aryana Sabalenka of Belarus on Thursday, recording the highest score in a Grand Slam since Serena Williams at Wimbledon nine years ago. “Now, I can say I have done a pretty good job of achieving my dreams. I just want to play a final. I’m going to enjoy my victory and worry about it tomorrow,” Fernandez said.
Saturday’s game will be the first to have teens competing against each other since Williams, 17, defeated Martina Hingis, 18, during the 1999 US Open.
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