United States Open (Tennis)

Viewers of the U.S. Open embraced the young finalists in women’s singles, a pair of teenagers who seemed as if they had been around forever.We adapt quickly. It’s part of the human spirit, whether we are teenage tennis stars or the people who line up and take a seat to watch them in the world’s biggest tennis stadium.Two weeks ago, the vast majority of us had never heard of Leylah Fernandez or Emma Raducanu. Fernandez had never been past the third round in a major tournament and had struggled to find her best form in recent weeks. Raducanu joined the tour in earnest only this summer and had to make it through the off-Broadway qualifying tournament to secure a spot in the U.S. Open. But by Saturday, when Fernandez, 19, and Raducanu, 18, took to the court for one of the most unlikely Grand Slam finals, we already had a connection.They had boldly worked through the women’s draw during this special U.S. Open, which was full of communion between the players and the public after all the distancing of the last year and a half.By Saturday, those who had been following the finalists’ unexpected progress already knew about their strengths, their multicultural backgrounds and even their quirks: Fernandez’s jig behind the baseline before walking forward to serve, Raducanu’s habit of blowing on her fingers between points as if to cool off a very hot hand.But what was most striking on Saturday was how quickly both unseeded players adjusted to this grand occasion, calmly giving thoughtful prematch television interviews, walking past Billie Jean King’s quote on the tunnel wall, which says that “pressure is a privilege,” and then walking past King herself as they emerged into the late-afternoon sunshine for the biggest opportunity of their short careers.It was all new, but you would not have known it once the ball was in play, as both attacked their groundstrokes and did their best to seize the occasion even after having nearly two full days to think about the occasion once they had won their semifinals.After the introductions, Fernandez ripped a backhand crosscourt winner on the opening point. Raducanu later pounded a backhand winner of her own to hold serve and win the opening game.The left-handed Leylah Fernandez uses more spin and enjoys deploying the drop shot.Ben Solomon for The New York TimesGrand Slam finals, even with more experienced players, can too quickly become one-way traffic. Tennis is a game of momentum, and the best-of-three-set format used by the women allows less time to turn the tide than the best-of-five format used by the men.But Raducanu and Fernandez both held firm, extending rallies with their quickness and defensive skills on the move, smartly sending lobs high into the atmosphere when cornered. But just as impressively, they finished points with authority when they had created the space to go for winners. Their styles contrast in some ways. The left-handed Fernandez uses more spin and enjoys deploying the drop shot. Her technique is more artisanal than textbook, with her hands often far apart on the grip on a two-handed backhand as she improvises on the fly. The right-handed Raducanu favors more direct power and has fabulous fundamentals that allow her to control the ball even while swinging ferociously. She has a knack for making the tricky shot look smooth and an ability to run around her backhand in a flash and rip an inside-out forehand that Roger Federer could relate to. But Fernandez and Raducanu are very contemporary tennis talents in their ability to sustain pace and consistency from low body positions, their knees often touching the court as they counterpunch.Some of their extended rallies on Saturday were spectacular as they exchanged backhand bolts with nary a grunt, their sneakers squeaking on the hardcourt as they each focused on becoming a U.S. Open champion.Only Raducanu would get that great satisfaction, and though the score of 6-4, 6-3 will look fairly lopsided in the history books, anyone who watched will know that the match was much more tenuous than that.“These two young women are a gift to tennis, an absolute gift,” Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open men’s champion, wrote in a post on Twitter. Raducanu will get no shortage of attention at home and abroad for her breakthrough. A fine student in the classroom, she is clearly a very quick study on a tennis court, too. But women’s tennis is a wide-open world these days: Fourteen players have won their first Grand Slam singles title since 2015. More big trophies are no guarantee, no matter how phenomenal Raducanu’s run was in New York. But she seems wise beyond her years and not entirely of her generation: “I still haven’t checked my phone,” she said Saturday night. Riches, unlike trophies, surely await. Raducanu is from Britain, a major market, and is telegenic with a global appeal as the well-spoken daughter of parents with roots in Romania and China. Also, her agent is Max Eisenbud, who helped turn Maria Sharapova’s unexpected Wimbledon victory at age 17 into gold and now has an even more unlikely success story to work with.Raducanu finished her high-school exams shortly before Wimbledon, where she reached the fourth round in her Grand Slam debut and got a taste of “Emmamania” only to struggle with her breathing and nerves and retire mid-match against Ajla Tomljanovic.I asked Raducanu if she viewed her ability to rebound so quickly from that setback as a triumph. “I think the biggest triumph for me is how I managed to just not think of absolutely anything else except for my game plan,” she said. “I just completely zoned in and focused on my craft.”The crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday night saw two young players whose poise and adaptability were remarkable.Ben Solomon for The New York TimesRoddick was right to shine a light on both players on Saturday. Fernandez is not yet a Grand Slam champion, but she is a world-class fighter who walks between points with the steely determination of someone on her way to break up a bar brawl. She and her family have sacrificed plenty for her tennis career, and after losing a back-and-forth first set, Fernandez had every reason to still believe in her chances — given all of her successful battles with top players at Flushing Meadows. She upset three players ranked in the top five — Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka — as well as Angelique Kerber, a former No. 1 in resurgent form.Fernandez had beaten them all in three sets, so when Raducanu took a 5-2 lead in the second set but was unable to convert her first two match points on Fernandez’s serve, Fernandez grinned as if she knew something that nobody else yet suspected.Why should she not have believed in another comeback? But when she got a break point in the next game, she had to wait to play it as Raducanu, who had scraped her left knee while sliding for a shot, took an injury timeout to clean up trickling blood and have the wound bandaged.The stoppage was well within the rules, but in this thinker’s sport of ebbs and flows, it may have made the difference. Raducanu said she was concerned about losing her rhythm, as well. But it was Fernandez who expressed displeasure about the long pause to officials and then pushed a forehand long. Raducanu then saved a second break point with a leaping tap of an overhead.She was back to deuce with Arthur Ashe Stadium abuzz and presumably most of Britain wide-awake, as the match was broadcast in prime time in Raducanu’s home country.This time, she did not flinch, surprising Fernandez with a fine serve down the T that gave her command of the rally and brought her a third match point.She mulled her options, tossed the ball high and smacked an ace to become the first qualifier in the long history of tennis to win a Grand Slam singles title. In 10 matches, she never lost a set.Raducanu became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles title.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times“I never thought I would see it, so I’m in shock,” said King, who watched from the stands as Raducanu dropped her racket and fell to the court, her hands covering her face.It was a transformative moment, one that left both players in tears. But what seemed remarkable when the match ended was the same thing that had seemed remarkable as it began: the poise and adaptability of both young finalists.And when Fernandez, her eyes still red, seemed to have answered her last question at the awards ceremony, she had the presence of mind to ask for the microphone one more time and say what she had planned for this bittersweet Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.“I know on this day it was especially hard for New York and everyone around us,” she said. “I just hope I can be as strong and resilient as New York has been the past 20 years.”David Waldstein More

Emma Raducanu, the 18-year-old British phenom, completed a shocking run through the U.S. Open with a straight-sets victory over Leylah Fernandez of Canada on Saturday for a title that will surely go down as one of the great underdog journeys in the history of sports.Raducanu, ranked 150th in the world and barely known two weeks ago, became the first player to win a Grand Slam title after surviving the qualifying tournament, a scenario that may very well never be repeated. She also became the first woman from Britain to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977.And she did it the way she had handled every other match she played in New York, where she did not lose a set in 10 matches, a remarkable 20-set streak and another feat that is unlikely to be repeated anytime soon. Saturday’s score line was a clean 6-4, 6-3. “An absolute dream,” Raducanu called it.Raducanu’s game, a rare mix of power and precision, proved too much for Fernandez, a quick and fearless counterpuncher who possesses deceptive power as well. On Saturday afternoon, though, in front of a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium where the crowd blanketed both players with love, Fernandez simply ran out of points and punches, as Raducanu’s laserlike shots to the deepest parts of the court kept landing just beyond the Canadian teenager’s reach.After a tight first set, during which both players had chances to grab the early lead, Raducanu surged toward the finish line in the sixth game of the second set, breaking Fernandez’s serve by blocking what looked like a sure putaway with a screeching forehand down the line.Raducanu did not lose a set in the entire tournament.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesEver the fighter, Fernandez saved two match points as she served at 2-5 to keep the match going. In the next game, she sent Raducanu sprawling to the ground, as she chased Fernandez’s shot deep to the corner. But Raducanu settled herself during a medical timeout to get a cut on her leg bandaged, and five points later finished off the match with an ace. She collapsed on the court as the stadium exploded.“I was just praying not for a double-fault,” Raducanu would say of the finish, just before she became the unlikeliest lifter of a Grand Slam trophy that tennis has ever seen.Queen Elizabeth even chimed in, sending out a statement from Balmoral Castle praising Raducanu for “a remarkable achievement at such a young age.”This was the rarest of finals, a contest between two players known only to the most faithful of tennis fans two weeks ago.They had played once before, in the Wimbledon junior tournament in 2018. Raducanu won that match in straight sets as well. But two years ago, Raducanu was pretty sure her path would lead to college and a career in finance. She took her entrance exams earlier this year, around the time that she was playing in the lower tier tournaments that earned her a wild-card entry into Wimbledon, where she made her Grand Slam debut. This was her first summer of top-level competition.Fernandez, who turned 19 this week and is ranked 73rd, was until a few days ago known as little more than a scrappy, undersized battler. Few had predicted greatness for her. Some years back, a teacher told her to give up the game because she would never amount to anything.The crowd showered the two finalists with affection.Ben Solomon for The New York TimesFor tennis, their stunning journeys to the final could not have come at a better time. The sport had landed in an awkward spot in the weeks leading up to this U.S. Open. Novak Djokovic arrived in New York trying to accomplish the rarest of tennis feats, winning all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year, but most of the game’s biggest stars had fallen off the map. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal announced they were skipping the tournament because of injuries, as did Serena and Venus Williams.Then, on the first Friday night of the tournament, Naomi Osaka, the reigning champion and the biggest new star in tennis, lost to Fernandez in three sets and announced that she planned to leave the sport indefinitely. The game, she said, was no longer bringing her joy. Osaka spoke in the spring of battling depression since winning her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open in 2018.Once more, the dark side of the sport, a lonely, pressure-filled crucible often endured by young talents not ready to handle it, had burst into the open.Then along came Raducanu and Fernandez, two bright lights whose lineages span four continents. They delighted crowds with rousing victories and unique styles. After every win, Raducanu said she could not believe what had just happened, while Fernandez said how strongly she believed she could not lose, even if she had no right to think that way as she plowed through one highly ranked player after the next.Here was something all too rare on the tennis court — unadulterated joy from athletes playing loose and free, without any baggage from missed opportunities of the past, or the pressure that comes with success and the weight of expectations.Fernandez knocked off several prominent players on her way to the final, but she could not stop Raducanu.Ben Solomon for The New York TimesThe tired cliché in sports is that it is often a shame that one player has to lose. Given where Raducanu and Fernandez were just two weeks ago, as they emerged to captivate the tennis world and millions in their countries and elsewhere who rarely pay attention to the sport, it was simply impossible that either of them — or tennis itself — would come away from this experience having not won.There was a moment late in the match Saturday when the crowd of about 23,000 simultaneously chanted, “Let’s Go Emma!” and “Let’s Go Leylah!” with some fans alternating names with each round. When does that happen?They had taken such different routes to reach this stage, with Raducanu blazing through her solid but not quite spectacular opponents, and Fernandez surviving all those near-death experiences against Osaka, and then the three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber, and then Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka, two of the top five players in the world.Coming into the final, Raducanu spoke of treating it like just another match. Fernandez was not shy about talking about the opportunity that was before her. Her father, Jorge, who is her coach, said Saturday that he would talk to his daughter about how this was not just another match.“It’s a finals, all right,” Jorge Fernandez said in a teleconference from Florida because he did not accompany his daughter to the tournament, preferring that her mother, sister and fitness coach attend instead. “Let’s sweat it all out. Let’s make sure that no matter how it finishes, there are no regrets because we won’t get another crack at this again, if we’re fantastic, for another year.”As it turned out, the bigger winner turned out to be Raducanu, who got over her early jitters to grab the first lead at 2-0, only to see Fernandez quickly scramble back and knot the set at two games each. From there, the match settled into a tense rhythm with long games and long points.Raducanu and Fernandez had met once before, in a Wimbledon juniors match.Ben Solomon for The New York TimesWith Fernandez serving at 4-5, Raducanu tightened the vise with two killer crosscourt backhands to secure two set points. Fernandez would save those, as well as a third, but on the fourth one Raducanu fired a forehand down the line to take her 19th consecutive set.“I made too many mistakes in the crucial moments,” Fernandez said later. “This loss, I’m going to carry it for a very long time.”In the second set Fernandez was wobbly in the first points, then surged to a lead, then fell back, and it looked as if Raducanu was going to roll through, but each time Fernandez teetered on the edge, she came up with another scorching forehand, or stretched for a lob to extend the rally and get Raducanu to make one more untimely error. She would make 25 on the day. It happens when you are 18 and playing in the final of a Grand Slam for the first time, and it’s only your second Grand Slam.But Raducanu broke through in the pivotal sixth game, and the only question was whether her teenage nerves would be steely enough to handle the pressure of closing out the tournament.At first, they absolutely were as she raced to get two match points on Fernandez’s serve, but the error bug bit her again, and on they went to one of the strangest final games a Grand Slam final has ever seen, and to a deuce point that left blood dripping down Raducanu’s leg.It was a moment that might have panicked the most veteran of players, or caused one as inexperienced as Raducanu to try to rush to the finish. Two months ago, during what looked to everyone like a panic attack, she quit in the middle of her fourth round match at Wimbledon, telling the trainers she was having trouble breathing.Instead, as Raducanu faced break point on Saturday and a chance for Fernandez to get the set back on serve, she took a slow walk to her chair and called for the trainer. There, Raducanu got the bandage on her leg, absorbed what was unfolding and let it pass. With Fernandez questioning a tournament official about whether the injury really required a stoppage in play, Raducanu cooled herself with the air conditioning tube, then walked back onto the court a few minutes later, ready to meet her moment.When it was finished, Raducanu said something that so many have said before her, but no one ever truly believed, even those who have said it.“Every single player in the women’s draw has a shot at winning any tournament,” she said.After Saturday, no one could argue with her.The finalists embraced at the end of the match.Ben Solomon for The New York Times More