She was just a little girl enjoying a tennis knock-about with her doting dad in a local Bromley park.
But there was something – even at the age of four – about the way Emma Raducanu was striking the ball that caught the eye of passing tennis coach Richard Whichello.
So 'unusually exceptional' was her potential that Mr Whichello, a former British junior No1 who once represented Britain in the Davis Cup, couldn't resist approaching her father, Ian, to say how talented she was.
Without that encounter, the world might never have heard of tennis's newest global superstar. If Mr Whichello hadn't struck up that conversation, the so-called 'Fairytale of New York' might never have happened.
For 14 years after that father and pint-sized daughter rally, Emma is celebrating making sporting history by winning the US Open – the first British woman to win a major title for 44 years since Virginia Wade lifted the Wimbledon trophy in 1977.
Emma Raducanu, pictured as a youngster, was playing tennis as young as four years old
Here was an ordinary teenager with a rare talent from a humble three-bedroomed semi in one of the less scenic parts of suburbia who not only went to the winners' ball, but pocketed £1.8million in prize money and praise from all who witnessed her stunning victory – from the tennis greats to Her Majesty the Queen.
'Oh, I say!' as the late, great tennis commentator Dan Maskell might have said. And all this without losing her charming sense of wonder at her own meteoric success, even admitting she was so convinced she'd be knocked out in the first round, she'd booked a flight home two weeks before the final.
Indeed, she joked her original US Open goal was simply to win enough money to replace her lost Airpods, cost £109. She can afford more than 16,000 pairs of the wireless earphones now – possibly even more with talk of the multi-million pound deals expected to be laid at her nimble feet.
But it all started in that park with a young girl with raw talent, devoted parents determined to nurture it and the first of a series of tennis coaches and mentors who have never doubted her ability to reach the highest echelons of the sport.
Today Richard Whichello – Bjorn Borg's practice partner during the five-times Wimbledon champion's comeback in 1991 – is head coach at Beckenham Sports Club, Kent, where he teaches youngsters who all now want to emulate local girl Emma.
Mr Whichello is well known in tennis circles to be instrumental in nurturing her early talent and is said to be incredibly proud of her subsequent success.
Today Richard Whichello – Bjorn Borg's practice partner during the five-times Wimbledon champion's comeback in 1991 – is head coach at Beckenham Sports Club, Kent, where he teaches youngsters who all now want to emulate local girl Emma
'My loyalty to Emma and her family is huge,' he told the Mail but declined to speak further as he didn't want to create any 'distraction' in her moment of glory.
All he would say after she first took the world by storm at Wimbledon was: 'I have a feeling something seriously special is happening. It's the stuff that dreams are made of and couldn't happen to a more deserving and nicer girl.'
Others have revealed, however, that during that first conversation with Emma's Romanian father Ian, who moved to the UK with his Chinese wife Renee when Emma was two, the two men forged a lasting friendship after discovering their children would be starting at Bickley Primary School together.
Not only in charge of the tennis curriculum at the school, Mr Whichello encouraged Emma's parents to enrol her for lessons at Sundridge tennis club in Bromley where her talent and potential are said to have been 'in a different league' from the moment she picked up a racquet.
Already a star in the making aged six when she won the Under 8s Girls Championships at Bromley Tennis Centre, he is said to have been hugely proud of Emma when she won her first junior ITF title aged 13.
Pam
