Emma Radukanu was born in Toronto, Canada on November 13, 2002. Her father is Romanian and her mother is Chinese. She moved with her family to the suburbs of London when she was two years old, and at the age of five she already started playing tennis.
Her idols are Simona Halep and Li Na. As expected, her favorite tournament is Wimbledon. If she wasn’t a tennis player, she says that she would do something that has to do with finances, following the example of her parents, because she is good at math.
Before the US Open, she was 150, and before Wimbledon, just over a month ago, she was the 338th tennis player in the world. After the tournament in New York, they will surely be among the first 75, and if it continues like this, the first 50 players on the planet.
Before receiving a special invitation to Wimbledon this summer, she took (also very successfully) final exams in mathematics and economics. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, she did not play competitive tennis for 15 months.
No one set, I only play when I have to
Radukanu se victory over Belinda Bencic placed in the semifinals of the US Open, and counting the qualifications, she won eight opponents at this year’s tournament in New York and did not leave a single set to any of them.
Before the match with Belinda Bencic, she allowed the tennis players from the other side of the net to win only 15 games in the first four matches of the main draw, which only Serena Williams managed in 2013.
Bibian Shoffs, Mariam Bolkvadze and Majar Sheriff fell in front of the Briton in New York in the qualifications, followed by Stephanie Vogel, Shuai Zhang, Sara Soribes Tormo, Shelby Rogers and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the main draw.
She became only the fourth qualifier who managed to reach the semifinals of one of the Grand Slam tournaments in the Open era, and the first to do so at the US Open.
Previously, Christine Matheson reached the semifinals in 1978 at the Australian Open, Alexandra Stevenson in 1999 at Wimbledon and Nadja Podoroska at Roland Garros a year ago.
She is also the first tennis player since Jennifer Capriati in 1990, to reach at least the fourth round of her first two Grand Slam tournaments.
In the match against Maria Sakari or Karolina Pliškova, Emma will have the opportunity to become the first qualifier to qualify for the Grand Slam finals.
Everything was clear already at Wimbledon
The young Briton already showed at this year’s Wimbledon that she did not receive a special invitation from the organizers in her homeland for no reason.
She knocked out Market Vondrus and Soran Christe – two tennis players from the top 50 – and reached the fourth round at the age of 18 years and 239 days, making her the youngest Briton to do so in the Open era.
However, the match with Ajla Tomljanović ended in tears and with the intervention of the doctor because he had to give up with the result 4: 6, 0: 3 due to, as it was later announced, breathing problems.
Before Wimbledon, Raducanu was the 338th tennis player in the world, with the experience of playing only one match on the WTA tour – twenty days before the start of the tournament in London, she lost to Harriet Darth in the first round of the tournament in Nottingham, for which she also received an invitation.
Less success in smaller tournaments
It is interesting that the British tennis player has had more matches played in her short career so far, but also much more success, at Grand Slams than at other, weaker WTA tournaments.
After her debut in Nottingham and good games at Wimbledon, and before qualifying for the US Open, Radukanu played two more tournaments in August.
She lost again in the first round to Chinese Shuai Zhang in San Jose, and then in Chicago she entered the finals of the WTA 125 tournament (equivalent to men’s challengers), where she was defeated by Clara Tauson.
In the meantime, Radukanu changed her coach. Nigel Sears, former coach of Ana Ivanović and father-in-law Andy Maria, was replaced by Andrew Richardson, with whom Radukana already worked as a junior.
With her convincing and efficient game, but also with her appearance and behavior on the court and the attention she is already attracting outside, Emma Radukanu is the most serious candidate to be what women’s tennis lacks – a new star and a recognizable face that attracts spectators and media.
In addition to all the successes on the field, and also at school, she managed to take photos for the famous magazine Vogue.
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