NEW YORK – There will not be one, but two Cinderellas attending the US Open women’s final dance on Saturday.
Emma Raducanu, just 18 years old and ranked 150th on the WTA Tour, was born in Toronto to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother. He moved to the UK at age two, but still has a Canadian passport.
Leylah Fernández, born in Montreal, No. 73, turned 19 on Monday. The trilingual Fernández is the product of a first-generation Canadian mother of Filipino descent and a father who emigrated from Ecuador as a child. For the past three years, he has lived in Florida.
It’s a true melting pot ending, emblematic of a global game where where you’re born isn’t necessarily where you’re from or where you’re headed next.
And this unlikely youthful clash dates back to the 1980s and 1990s, when fresh-faced teenage champions were the norm rather than the exception.
It will be the first final of a Grand Slam tournament with two unseeded women, and the first with two teenagers since 17-year-old Serena Williams defeated 18-year-old Martina Hingis for the US Open title of 1999.
On Thursday night, Fernandez became the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Maria Sharapova, 17, at Wimbledon in 2004. About 90 minutes later, she was impersonated by Raducanu, two months younger.
Everything is quite surreal.
“I think a word that really stuck to me is ‘magic’, because not only is my career really good, but also the way I’m playing now,” Fernandez said after 7-6 (3) 4-6, 6. from Thursday. -4 win over World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka. “I’m just having fun. I’m trying to produce something for the crowd to enjoy. I’m glad that whatever he’s doing on the court, the fans love it, and I love it too. “
How did you do it? The young woman herself has no idea. In the end, it was a perfect and fortuitous storm.
The New York crowd is famous for being behind the homeless. Fernández, tiny and demonstrative, is the perfect prototype.
And one thing is for sure: there have been no shortcuts for any of the players.
Raducanu has had the longest road. With his current ranking, he had won three qualifying matches only to earn a spot in the main draw. So he has already played eight singles matches. And only the last two, against No. 11 seed and Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic in the quarterfinals and No. 17 seed Maria Sakkari in the semi-finals, faced players ranked within the top 40.
But if his list of conquests was not at the top level of the WTA, it is equally true that Raducanu has been a fashionable saw. In those eight games, he still hasn’t lost a set.
“I always dreamed of playing in Grand Slams, but I didn’t know when they would come,” Raducanu said after the almost effortless 6-1, 6-4 victory over Sakkari. “Coming so early, at this point in my career, I’ve only been on the road for a month, two months since Wimbledon, it’s pretty crazy to me.”
Meanwhile, Fernández faced the most overwhelming draw.
His first two opponents, Ana Konjuh and Kaia Kanepi, both former top 20 players now ranked lower due to injuries, possess the power that has always been effective against the southpaw, who is generously at five-foot-six.
In short, they didn’t play very well. And Fernández was there to capitalize.
Then came the two-time champion Naomi Osaka, the toughest of all.
But the Osaka who appeared at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the third round was a shadow of her better self. In fact, after the 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4 loss, the 23-year-old announced that she was taking an indefinite break from the game. Still, Osaka served for the match in the second set. Fernandez’s fairy tale might well have ended, respectable enough, at that point.
After that came victories over former No. 1 Angelique Kerber and staunch top-10 player Elina Svitolina, the No. 5 seed. In both games, Fernandez had a lot of problems, but managed to find solutions. And his more experienced opponents staggered cooperatively.
When the Canadian played Sabalenka, the impulse born of that confidence was in full swing. And the Belarusian was simply not willing to counter it.
Like Bencic, Sakkari and Kerber, Sabalenka took on the pressure of expectations, something Fernández and Raducanu felt they had not yet experienced.
“I wouldn’t say that she did something; I’d say I destroyed myself, ”said a regretful Sabalenka after the loss. “Now there is no pressure on her. The crowd is here for her. You feel this infatuation and you’re using it, hitting the ball, (not) really thinking, it’s all coming in, ”he added. “This is (a) kind of nice feeling. I felt it before. “
If Fernández wins this inaugural Grand Slam title, the most unlikely, he will rise to the top 20 in the rankings. It would also remove Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, from the top 20 and become the new Canadian No. 1.
Both Fernández and Raducanu are already guaranteed $ 1.25 million (US) in prizes for reaching the final. The winner will double it to $ 2.5 million. (Fernandez earned an additional $ 27,000 by reaching the third round in doubles with Caledon, Ontario’s Erin Routliffe.)
It’s a lot, at all levels. And it’s just the beginning.
The players that Fernández and Raducanu have kicked the tennis curb along the way know this very well.
These two carefree teens are about to find out.
Tape tale
Here’s how the contenders face off in key areas for Saturday’s US Open Women’s Final (4pm, TSN):
- Who is older? Fernández, born on September 6, 2002, is two months older than Raducanu, who will turn 19 on November 13.
- A global final: Fernández’s father is Ecuadorian, his mother is a Filipino-Canadian born in Toronto. Born in Montreal, she lives in Florida. Raducanu was born in Toronto to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother, and lives in London.
- Pro debuts: Fernández had just turned 14 when she made her professional debut in October 2016. She first appeared in the WTA rankings on July 31, 2017 (ranked 1,024). Raducanu played his first professional-level tournament in March 2018, when he was 15 years old. He first appeared in the rankings on May 28, 2018 (at number 885).
- Ranking disparity: Fernández arrived at the Open in position 73; Raducanu at No. 150. Both will be in the top 35 regardless of Saturday’s result.
- Best trophy: The highlight of Fernández’s career (until this week) was winning a WTA 250 tournament in Monterrey, Mexico in March. A title at a $ 25,000 International Tennis Federation (US) tournament in Pune, India in December 2019 is Raducanu’s best yet. There, she also came from the classification.
- Head to head: The 15-year-olds met in the second round of junior Wimbledon in 2018, after Fernandez stepped onto a grass pitch for the first time in his life the week before in a taper tournament in nearby Roehampton. Raducanu usually won: 6-2, 6-4.
- Keys to victory: Fernandez has many more ways to score points with a slice, a drop shot and, perhaps most importantly, a left-handed serve that can knock his opponent out wide. Simply put, you have more play at this stage. And she has more experience in bigger tournaments, even if the British player has already shown that she can shine on the sport’s biggest stages.
Raducanu’s strongest side is by far his backhand. In the prevailing cross-court patterns that make up much of a tennis match, that plays directly on Fernandez’s best side, which is his right. She also has predictable patterns at this stage. In particular, she predominantly hit Maria Sakkari’s cut serves in the semi-finals on Thursday. But for whatever reason, the Greek player never noticed and covered that shot, and was continually misled. In particular, Raducanu has rarely been pushed in her singles matches in New York. The Brit can get frustrated if things don’t go well. Fernández’s job is not to let her play and try to create situations in which that frustration can arise.
If the Canadian continues to hug the bottom line and take control of the points as she has done for a fortnight, she is likely to win.
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