From the rooftop terrace of Emma Raducanu’s Fifth Avenue hotel you can see for miles across the canyons of Manhattan.
One more win this evening and, wherever she finds herself, the 18-year-old from Kent really will be the queen of all she surveys.
Nobody has ever taken the lift from tennis’s basement to the penthouse suite as quickly as Raducanu, who entered Wimbledon ranked 338 in the world shortly after taking her A-levels.
If Emma Raducanu can beat Leylah Fernandez she will join the legends of the game as a US Open champion
Raducanu (left) and Fernandez's (right) contest is the first teenage female Grand Slam final since 1999
Less than three months later, with her schoolfriends about to embark on freshers’ week at university, she is about to sit her finals. If she can beat 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez, another shooting star, she will join the legends of the game who are US Open champions.
She would deservedly carve herself a unique place in British sporting history. Given how well her game translates to grass, Wimbledon’s Henman Hill might even morph into Raducanu Ridge over the next 10 years.
This will be the biggest final that Fernandez has played in, although she did win a main WTA Tour event in Mexico in March.
In the early hours of yesterday morning Raducanu was seated inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium, being asked what her biggest title has been to date. It was a $25,000 ranking tournament in the Indian city of Pune, in late 2019. Her ascent has been that dramatic.
She reached the final of a slightly bigger event in Chicago the weekend before arriving in New York. She was tired and, according to those close to her camp, there was the genuine fear that the three rounds of qualifying — a uniquely taxing event in its own way — might be too much.
Raducanu with Andy Murray two years ago. She could become Great Britain's next tennis superstar
Raducanu will never have it like this again. Never again will she be able to walk unrecognised in the streets
Wimbledon’s Henman Hill might even morph into Raducanu Ridge over the next 10 years
Nine wins later, with not so much as a set conceded, she is the first player to come through the preliminaries to make a Grand Slam final.
Raducanu must seize the day, because it will never be like this again for her. Never again will she walk unrecognised around the streets of a New York which, at present, has a slightly hollowed out feel to it amid the pandemic. Never again will there be a small handful of media who are here to chart her progress.
She has been at the heart of a tiny team, supported by one-time childhood mentor Andrew Richardson and physio Will Herbert. That this is the genial giant Richardson’s first serious experience of big-time coaching only adds to the fairytale feel.
The stars have aligned and, the way the draw has fallen, Raducanu might win the US Open without facing a player ranked in the top 10.
This is, however, less significant than it sounds. Not just because her technical level of play and extraordinary composure have been of someone who already belongs in the very highest company. The fact is that she is joining the top table at a time when the hierarchy of women’s tennis is in a state of
