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What to know about Saturday’s final
Second set: Raducanu leads 5-2, is one game from her first major trophy
Another forehand winner — this one not quite down the line — shifted all momentum towards Emma Raducanu when she broke Leylah Fernandez to go up 4-2. Then the 18-year-old Brit had a strong hold to put herself in position for the win.
Second set: Leylah Fernandez leads 2-1
Leylah Fernandez saved three break points in the third game of the second set to give herself a 2-1 lead.
After playing so many three-set matches en route to the final, it’s impressive how energized Fernandez still looks.
Raducanu takes the first set, 6-4
After 57 minutes and four set points, Emma Raducanu drilled a forehand winner out of Leylah Fernandez’s reach, gestured to the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium and asked for more noise after clinching the first set of her first major final, 6-4.
Fernandez had just one more unforced error (15 total) than Raducanu, and both teens stuck to the big swinging games that got them into the final, notching 11 winners apiece. But the difference may be in Fernandez’s serve — she’s serving at just 50 percent to Raducanu’s 57 percent.
Raducanu has now won 19 consecutive sets a the U.S. Open going back to qualifiers.
Raducanu leads 5-4
Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez are so evenly matched right now it’s no surprise that after Fernandez broke back to even the set the two teens have simply continued trading games. Raducanu has looked perhaps a hair tighter than Fernandez in moments, but has been able to right herself after unforced errors with stupendous court coverage after nearly an hour of play.
Raducanu leads 2-1 after Fernandez breaks back
The Canadian teenager made her large cheering contingent happy when she broke Emma Raducanu’s serve in the third game of the set to get things back on track after another lengthy game.
Leylah Fernandez not only has an entire row of fans who spelled out her name on their shirts, she’s also got Brooklyn Nets Coach (and avid tennis player) Steve Nash in her player box. Not too shabby for such a newcomer.
Emma Raducanu breaks for a 2-0 lead
Well that’s some start for the teenagers in this final.
After 14 minutes and a handful of long rallies, Emma Raducanu broke Leylah Fernandez for a 2-0 lead with some fantastic groundstrokes.
U.S. Open women’s final is a contrast of styles — and a potential preview of sport’s future
NEW YORK — In blazing their improbable paths to the U.S. Open final, teenagers Leylah Fernandez and Emma Raducanu have earned a guaranteed seven-figure payday ($2.5 million for the victor, $1.25 million for the runner-up), legions of new fans and shout-outs from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his British counterpart, Boris Johnson.
Along the way, they have given new life to their sport with their fresh faces, their fresh games and the sheer exuberance of their play.
But when they step onto the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium for Saturday’s championship, Fernandez, 19, and Raducanu, 18, will have lost the advantage that has served them so well to date — the benefit of having nothing to lose against far more seasoned opponents.
They are the unlikely finalists left standing. And the question, with a U.S. Open championship at stake, turns to who can play most freely, most bravely and with the abandon of the underdog when her opponent is as much of an underdog as she.
How do Raducanu and Fernandez match up?
Raducanu and Fernandez’s inexperience add a layer of mystery to Saturday’s final. Both teens have displayed steely nerves throughout their improbable runs, but a match with a Grand Slam trophy on the line is a different beast and neither will have the advantage of being the underdog, a status that for both players has brought forth freewheeling, bold tennis.
Fernandez has proven herself a scrapper at just 5-foot-6, a runner with impeccable court coverage and reach that almost resembles Daniil Medvedev’s at times — she’ll extend an arm as far as possible for a return and somehow come up with a bullwhip of a groundstroke. Her adaptability has been noteworthy as well as the bedrock of so many three-set wins, as has her lefty serve, which could cause her opponent some trouble.
Raducanu, on the other hand, looks a bit more precise on court compared to Fernandez’s freneticism; she is a deadly returner with outstanding timing on her groundstrokes.
Off court, one of the subplots of Saturday’s matchup is that both finalists hail from multicultural households. Tennis’s top ranks are filled with the children of immigrants, and Raducanu and Fernandez’s stories are similarly rich: Raducanu’s mother is Chinese and her father is Romanian. Fernandez’s mother is Filipino Canadian and her father, who is also her coach, was born in Ecuador before immigrating to Canada as a young boy.
Raducanu will be the new British No. 1 on Monday no matter the outcome of the final. But should she capture the trophy, she would be the first British woman to win a major singles title since Virginia Wage in 1977.
The path to the final
Saturday’s match is a historic one as Raducanu, who first stormed onto the scene this summer with a fourth-round run at Wimbledon, is the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open era.
Ranked No. 150 in the world, the Brit has yet to drop a set in nine matches, including three in the qualifying tournament before main draw competition began. In her quarterfinal match she beat No. 11 seed and Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic before toppling No. 17 seed Maria Sakkari, a 2021 French Open semifinalist, in the semis.
World No. 73 Fernandez has had an eye-popping run that includes four consecutive upsets of seeded players — all of which she won in three sets. A feisty third-round upset of world No. 3 Naomi Osaka led to a win over veteran and three-time major winner Angelique Kerber in the fourth round. In the quarterfinals, Fernandez dispatched world No. 5 Elina Svitolina before taking down No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in the semis, a pair of opponents with 26 WTA titles between them.
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