sport news MARTIN SAMUEL: Emma Raducanu is the schoolgirl with nerves of steel and fists ...

sport news MARTIN SAMUEL: Emma Raducanu is the schoolgirl with nerves of steel and fists ...
sport news MARTIN SAMUEL: Emma Raducanu is the schoolgirl with nerves of steel and fists ...

The voices called out and Emma Raducanu granted their wish. She is still new enough to this to look mildly shocked that anyone would prize her sweaty wristbands.

The young men jostled roughly at the front and one got his reward. Then Raducanu spotted a quieter figure crowded out at the back. A little girl. Long, dark hair. Spectacles. Possibly of similar Asian ancestry. She handed the second wristband to a tall security guard and he reached over the crowd and made sure it found its target.

Raducanu was not going to miss from there, not with the form she is in. Now on to Saturday’s final. Is this the next generation? The changing of the guard? It would be wonderful to think so. The last time two teenagers contended a women’s Grand Slam final was the 1999 US Open, Serena Williams versus Martina Hingis. Yet that felt very different.

Emma Raducanu's meteoric ascent could signal a changing of the guard in women's tennis

Emma Raducanu's meteoric ascent could signal a changing of the guard in women's tennis

By the end, women’s tennis had been altered for ever. Hingis arrived a five-time Grand Slam winner and still 17 days short of her 20th birthday. By the time she deserted the court, beaten in straight sets, her era was over. Williams had the talent and range of Hingis, plus a power and physicality that she could not match. Hingis would never win another Grand Slam singles title. For Williams, it was the first of 23. But maybe no more.

For when Raducanu meets Leylah Fernandez on Saturday, anything is possible. From here, who knows what lies ahead for either finalist? Raducanu’s rise has been meteoric. Fernandez has defeated three of the tournament’s top five seeds. This has been a simply wonderful event for women’s tennis, full of surprise and sublime play and breathless athleticism.

If the finalists appear to have come from nowhere, nothing about their victories suggests the callowness of youth. Beaten semi-finalist Maria Sakkari did not play badly against Raducanu, yet went down 6-1, 6-4, as if overwhelmed. Physically imposing and strong, she was no match for her lithe athleticism and intensity.

Raducanu, here seen training in the gym, is the schoolgirl with nerves of steel and fists of fury

Raducanu on her Kawasaki motorbike

Raducanu, here seen training and biking, is the schoolgirl with nerves of steel and fists of fury

By reaching the US Open final without giving up a set, even in qualifying, Raducanu has emulated a feat last achieved by Serena Williams in 2014. There is never any harm in being mentioned in the same breath as the greatest tennis player in history.

Raducanu’s potential was, of course, shown at this year’s Wimbledon where she became the youngest British woman to reach the fourth round in the Open era. Yet it was what happened in the aftermath of her eventual defeat to Ajla Tomljanovic that showed she had the grit and determination of a potential champion.

That day, Raducanu, who entered Wimbledon as a wildcard ranked 338 and whose progress even to the fourth round was therefore astonishing, suffered breathing difficulties after losing the first set 6-4 and

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