The rise and rise of Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez
A mere 38 months ago, Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez met in the second round of the junior championships at Wimbledon, flanked by little more than polite applause and a smattering of interested onlookers.
On Saturday night Raducanu repeated her straight sets victory over the 19-year-old Canadian, dropping a single game more than she did in their girls’ singles clash at the All England Club in 2018, in a match of immense quality on the grandest stage of all.
Their second meeting, in front of 23,703 fans on Arthur Ashe Stadium court, was gladiatorial and heart-warming in equal measure. An intense, high-quality battle of offensive tennis was book-ended by broad, infectious smiles and remarkable maturity from two young athletes who suddenly - inexplicably - look like they belong at the top of the game.
The duo's journey to the title match in New York has made it brazenly clear that there is more than one way to the top of the sport. But Saturday night’s celebration of youth and fearlessness in New York also delivered with it an overwhelming feeling of empowerment for girls and women (not to mention boys and men equally inspired by their achievements) as the world at large enters another difficult phase.
At a time when women are being denied opportunities for basic rights in some corners of the globe, Fernandez and Raducanu showed the world their power, their nerve, their raw ability, and the potential of women in sport, generally. It wasn’t just a great moment for sport, but, and forgive this slight tangent, a glowing example of the utter pointlessness of oppressing any individual as a result of their gender.
It was always going to take something pretty special to detract attention from Novak Djokovic’s bid to complete the calendar Grand Slam in the men’s singles final, but it was two teenage women – rather than the man that has played a huge role in taking the sport to new and unthinkable heights over the past decade – who stole the headlines in New York.
Fernandez and Raducanu have both enjoyed a rapid trajectory in their tennis development, but both honed their competitive instincts through the ITF player pathway.
Raducanu played in 25 junior tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour between 2015 and 2019, including six junior Grand Slams. Her junior career took in seven titles in total, as well as girls’ singles quarter-finals at both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018, where she ultimately lost out to fellow prodigious talents Iga Swiatek and Clara Burel, respectively.
Though yet to contest a WTA main draw match, Raducanu has enjoyed numerous competitive opportunities in the entry-realm of professional tennis on the ITF World Tennis Tour, competing in the main draw of 17 ITF tournaments between April 2018 and last month, when she reached the quarter-finals at W100 Landisville.
It is well-documented that Raducanu has prioritised her education in recent years – and didn’t travel to tennis tournaments at all through the height of the pandemic – but it’s similarly important to note that, even with her burgeoning talent, she didn’t tear up the junior circuit either, nor did she dominate her early competitive appearances on the ITF World Tennis Tour. The path to individual success is as much about learning and honing your craft as it is about winning. Above all, that path is entirely unique.
Where Raducanu, who never made it inside the junior top 20, has had an explosive breakthrough on to the world stage, Fernandez has made a steadier journey along the ITF player pathway, albeit with several landmark moments along the way.
After losing to Radacanu in the junior event at 2018 Wimbledon, Fernandez went on to reach the girls’ singles final at the 2019 Australian Open, losing to another emerging talent in Denmark’s Clara Tauson.
She ended her junior career with the 2019 Roland Garros girls’ singles title, beating American Emma Navarro in the final, and the junior world No. 1 ranking followed that September.
Fernandez, who stands at five-feet-four-inches tall, has steadily gained attention for her high tennis IQ, and her clever and tenacious manipulation of the ball. Those traits took her to her first WTA title in Monterrey this March, almost two years after she won her first title on the ITF World Tennis Tour on Canadian soil at W25 Gatineau.
A proud Canadian, Fernandez has relished competing in country colours too - starring at both junior and elite level in Billie Jean King Cup (then known as Fed Cup) in recent years.
In fact, she credits one of her early appearances in the competition, when she defeated Olympic champion Belinda Bencic during Canada’s tussle with Switzerland in February 2020, for giving her the belief that she can go toe-to-toe with the best players in the world.
“It was an amazing and very special moment,” Fernandez told ITF World earlier this year. “That victory showed me that I can play at the level of a Top 5 player. I have a lot of goals for my future and career and I’d like to continue to compete at the Top 5 and Top 10 skill level and defeat those types of players.”
She delivered on that desire in remarkable style in New York – defeating world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 3 Naomi Osaka and No. 5 Elina Svitolina, not to mention three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber, on her way to becoming only the third Canadian woman to reach a major final.
It’s a nod to the beauty of the game that the only player capable of stopping her was a qualifier ranked No. 150 in the world.
It's a funny old sport, tennis; but one with a very bright future.