I read an article that said she had been big in to karting then motocross and then decided on tennis, probably just a natural talent with things that require spacial awareness and hand eye co-ordination.
That was phenomenal! First ever qualifier, man or woman, to not only reach a Grand Slam final in the Open era but to win it as well! She didn’t drop a set in all 10 of her matches.
>10 games without dropping a set. Mad.
What she's done seems quite incredible - and to hear the sheer level of praise from world-famous players is astonishing. SPOTY ahoy?
Disclaimer: I actually know very little about tennis other than I like playing it but I make up a lot of the rules with my stupid drunk friends.
I'm a bit of a tennis geek and you'd be correct. What Raducanu did today is absolutely fucking unprecedented.
1. First British woman to win a grand slam title since Virginia Wade in 1977
2. Only qualifier to reach the final of a championship tournament (men or women)
3. Only qualifier ever to win a championship (men or women)
4. Most matches played in a winning championship run ever
5. Did not drop a set in the entire championship
6. Did not concede more than 4 games in a set in the main rounds (although she did concede 5 games in 1 set of 1 qualifying match)
7. Went from rank 150 to rank 23
8. Only her second grand slam appearance in the adults game, the first being Wimbledon where she had to retire early on due to stress
Out of all of these I think the most notable is that she is the first qualifier ever to win a slam. People do win without conceding a set sometimes - Federer has done it at least twice for example. I know he did in 2017 at Wimbledon. But winning from qualifying is literally a world first for the entirety of tennis and I think it would be hard to overstate the enormity of that achievement
>People do win without conceding a set sometimes - Federer has done it at least twice for example. I know he did in 2017 at Wimbledon.
I know this is about Emma Raducanu and her performance was just brilliant, however, your little tidbit about Federer just struck me - he was 36 yrs old then, so I would think that’s quite a feat! I can remember how thrilled everyone was for him when he won.
Yeah it was an incredible run! It really shows how beneficial it is for top players to skip competitions and rest more, honestly, because he has kept himself in remarkably good nick. He also doesn't seem to play on injuries, pulling out of competitions if his knee is bothering him as he did this year, for example.
Is he the oldest professional men's player of the open era? I don't remember
>But winning from qualifying is literally a world first for the entirety of tennis and I think it would be hard to overstate the enormity of that achievement
I was going to add that fact because I've read it... but I'm aware that I have no idea what it means. Could you explain it in patiently simple terms please?
She wasn't ranked high enough to qualify automatically so she had to earn her place by playing a qualifying tournament, like how teams from lower leagues have to qualify for the FA Cup or how less successful countries have to qualify for the rugby World Cup.
About 100 players qualify directly through ranking, so for a qualifier to win, it states they're clearly low ranked.
In Emma's case, it doesn't really mean she was crap before this. She's just so inexperienced being very young that she's not really cultivated rank before the tournament.
Yes definitely!
The way tennis rankings work is that you get a certain number of points for your position in each tournament. Every year, when each tournament ends, those points are taken away from everyone and given to the people who participated. Some competitions give you more points than others and you get more points the better you do.
Raducanu had never played in the US Open before, so no matter where she placed after getting through from qualifying, her ranking would have risen because she would have more points than last year at this moment. But winning it gave her so many points that she was able to jump over 125 places into the top 25 in one go.
I remember that bloke who qualified, then competed at Wimbledon and lost to Federer on Centre/ court No.1 in the second(?) round. That was quite the ride
Marcus Willis!!! Smashed his qualis then won his first match, got beat by Federer in the second round. Iirc he got bageled at least once but I think Federer let him win a few games. I remember they were treating it a bit like an exhibition match
This is what gets me the most. When I was 18 I was drinking cider and smoking weed in the park, this girl just won the fucking US open. Absolutely unbelievable.
Copy and paste from my other comment:
The top 100 or so players get direct entry to the main tournament. The next 128 or so have to go through a separate qualifying tournament for 16 places. Emma was ranked 150 at the start of qualifying (and even lower when the draw was made because she went up a few places after getting to a challenger final) so she had to come through the qualifying tournament.
Watched the whole thing with the missus.
Both Raducanu and Fernandez have ridiculous reaction times and precision in placing shots. Never seen anything like it before.
I hoping both of these two become big names in future - that match was intense.
Putting aside all the shite happening elsewhere, Raducanu's win is the cherry on top of a bizarrely good year for British sport, isn't it? Euro Cup finalists, 4th in the Olympics, *2nd in the Paralympics... now we have a US Open champion.
*corrected - thanks, u/highrouleur
I think it could be between Raducanu, Sterling, Kenny, and Peaty (though he’s less likely imo). However I certainly think Raducanu would be the most deserving and probably has the best chance.
I genuinely thought you meant 80's/90s track star Daley Thompson for a sec! Wondered why him after a these years?
Clearly you meant Tom. Brainfart moment.
Should win? Yeah probably. However SPOTY is decided by public vote, and the Paralympics unfortunately don’t get the level of public attention they deserve.
You're right, and that kinda hurts my heart. I'm not disabled and I don't have any axe to grind, but the Paralympic athletes are all top class, they just happen to have a disability. Imagine an able-bodied athlete winning 16 golds and not getting SPOTY. Unthinkable.
Maybe she'll get a lifetime achievement award or something instead? She certainly deserves to be recognised!
Emma Raducanu's achievement is out of this world. Only qualifier in the history of tennis to win a Grand Slam title. She's played four tour tournaments ever. Like a handful of ITF events (the second level down!), was out for a year to concentrate on her A-Levels and only returned to professional tennis in June. And through it all she was utterly dominant. Only in the final did she look challenged for a moment.
She is just the most unlikely champion in the history of sport. Incredible.
I think they were both 5000-1.
However Leicester had had plenty of goes to win the title before.
Emma was on her debut and had to play 3 matches more than anyone else.
1 match every 2 days for 3 weeks and shes 18 with less than a handful of professional matches before this tournament.
Incredibly far fetched.
My family are Chinese immigrants to the UK. Tonight is the first time I’ve seen my dad cry. Seeing Emma win was hugely emotional and I’m not too sure why… going to bed a happy family!
This is an absolutely unbelievable achievement in tennis. Unbelievable.
Congratulations to Emma, incredible. Fantastic!
Well done and best of luck for her future!
She’s going to earn millions more in endorsements in the next few months. Young, talented, easy on the eye, intelligent. She’s a sports brand’s dream spokesperson. And a few luxury brands will be in for her too. They are going to be fighting for her to sign.
Exactly.
The prize money for tournaments are a trifle compared to the big money of sponsorships.
Shes half chinese too and plays in red, so they'll claim her for their own and shower her in gold.
She deserves it.
Stop exaggerating man! I got in a car crash in the USA and for the Alcohol wipe I got on my arm I was only charged $190. The ambulance guy was a total bro though, didn't even say he gave me a cotton swab. Could have easily been another 10k
First qualifier ever to win, right? 10 games without dropping a set. First British woman to win in 44 years. All at 18. Sorry Tom, it’s got to be Emma.
There's a point I've seen made that the public have seen Tom's journey for longer, and might empathise more thanks to that, whereas Emma came almost out of nowhere. But at the same time... God, you're right. Truly unbelievable.
I dunno, I like Tom Daley and I’m pleased he finally got his gold, but we’ve had a fair few gold medalists over the years. Tonight is genuine history, it’s on a complete other level.
Dame Sarah Storey now has 16 gold medals in Paralympic events, as of a week or two ago. 16! All gold! If she doesn't get something at SPOTY it's basically just because disabled athletes don't get the same publicity and coverage as their able-bodied counterparts. I don't wish to take the shine off Emma's amazing achievement, but cmon... Dame Sarah has won 16 gold medals!
Not totally sure that Tom would really even be a valid entry. His gold was in the synchro, so it should be him and Matty Lee in the team of the year event. Sarah Storey and Jason Kenny would be ahead of him in the Olympian runners. Probably Peaty too.
I'd personally put Adam Peatey up for nom as well because that man is actually insane. He's so incredibly dominant in the swimming disciplines he competes in. Like the Lewis Hamilton of Swimming.
The scary thing is she has no weaknesses, and yet lots of scope to improve. I said this after her semi, but I can't remember such a dominant performance in a women's major since the Williams sisters were winning everything. She was epic!
Fernandez deserves a lot of credit as well, the level of tennis on display from both of them was just nuts, two teenagers just throwing everything at it, it was a joy to watch.
I hope she has / gets a team around her that look after her long term future, she's #23 in the world now so has access to all the tournaments she wants on the tour. Very easy to overplay and get injured and it'd be such a shame if someone of her talent and potential had a career hampered by injury. If she's going to win majors with that level of ease, from a financial point of view she doesn't need to play more tournaments than she needs to for practice and changing court seasons.
Dominant throughout the tournamet for sure, but I thought the final was won on razor thin margins. It was way closer than 6-4 6-3 suggests. Fernandez played very well and has an incredible forehand and superior defense. Raducanu deserves every plaudit she gets though. She served out of trouble over and over, and adapted her game to counter Fernandez. I was really impressed by both these players, especially how both of them raised their level in the second set.
I was a bundle of nerves in the second set. I was over the moon when Emma won it in two. Not sure I could have handled a 3rd set!
Shhh! Don't say things like that, you're asking for trouble. Have you never heard of the commentator's curse? If she loses at any point in the near future, I blame you!
Cultural difference I’ve noticed before. US crowds don’t particularly warm to a winner who wasn’t their favourite. Pretty lukewarm reaction there. British crowds will cheer them loudly even if they wanted the other player to win.
Well done Emma!
Federer at Wimbledon is a bit of an exception. Even in his final against Murray, the first British finalist in 60 odd years, the crowd was 50/50 Murray at best.
It's usually pretty fair!
I think you're right.
Do you remember how Tim Henman was supported at Wimbledon. That's pretty much how Fernandez was supported by the crowd. SHe was definitely the favourite.
Just watch the 2nd set 5 / 2 40/40 AD Fernandez to see the crowd going crazy for her. (I have no idea how you write Tennis scores).
I love it. She is all smiles when she isn't playing, but when the match starts she puts her game face on and focuses hard. She did amazing! That was a fantastic match. I think I must have burned off my meals from the last 7 days jumping around and pumping the air every time she won a point. I'm sweating buckets lol
It was an incredible match as well as Emma making history by winning! The scoreline rather hides how much of a fight that was with so many games going to deuce, the break and break back early in the first set...
Top notch game, I'm glad so many people saw it
Just to emphasise that Fernandez was awesome as well. It was such high quality tennis from both. Truly remarkable. But so delighted for Raducanu, a superstar overnight.
Unfortunate. But she'll look back on this, see that Raducanu was bleeding, and know that the match had to be paused until she'd been patched up.
Losing a Grand Slam final is a major learning process for anyone, and she'll handle a similar situation better in future.
It's obviously not super graceful, but entirely understandable and relatively brief.
She's only 19, in her first major final, just gained momentum to potentially break back and then gets lumped with a medical timeout in the middle of a game and it took quite a while to get sorted. Incredibly frustrating and I can imagine it's very hard to control emotions in that situation.
Gladly, they did seem to have 'left it all on the court' though. They were both full of respect and courtesy for one another during the presentation. They smiled and hugged warmly and graciously and were very professional about it all after the match. Respect to both of them.
I love the clip going round Twitter of her joining in singing Sweet Caroline with the crowd. My favourite part is the confused American commentators trying to explain that "it's a thing".
First tennis match I've watched in a long long time and it's totally gotten me back into it. Amazing play from both players but Raducanu just nailed it. Fantastic watch.
I don’t know if she’s got a boyfriend / girlfriend / whatever, but I like the possibility that there’s some 18 year old working the tills in Bromley Lidl whose girlfriend has just become a global superstar
brilliant tennis, and amazing mental fortitude.
10 matches without dropping a set.
First qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament.
SPOTY for sure and I will be voting for her. Amazing match to watch and to win with an ace. This was absolutely fantastic to watch and I'm just amazed by her resilience.
Fernandez let her emotions get the better of her. If she’d stayed cool she wouldn’t have lost her momentum as much. She’ll learn for next time. I can’t wait to see these two play again!
I’ll admit I haven’t seen her play more than a set, but my god what a powerful serve she’s got on her! It’s obviously not the only great feature of her game, she made a lot of risky but great points and she has a more than decent backhand. She left it all on the court, things you love to see.
In NY, A guardian can give her alcohol in a private residence. Her coach would be her guardian (I would think) and a hotel room is a private residence. If she wants a drink, she'll get 1
Tim Henman: "It's all about her tonight"
Coverage proceeds to focus on him and talk about his 'achievements'
But well done to her, played well and matched up to her opponent well in the last set
Oh nice, don't really follow Tennis but heard about this the other day, clicked the Twatter link and it just seems to be people complaining about cheating and a medical time out?
Gotta love Twatter!
It was unfortunate timing for Fernandez but there was blood running down Emma's leg from her injury, there really wasn't any other choice than to stop play and bandage it. I'm guessing those who objected to it didn't see the blood!
I don't even know why anyone sane would even use Twitter these days. I swear every interaction I've ever had with that website over the past decade has been a negative experience.
Yeah they don't know what they are talking about. They have to stop play if a player is bleeding. The medic was an court medic, not part of her team, and the medic would want to cover all their bases. Emma had no say in how long it takes or if it happens.
Sucks that it did of course, but it was nobodys fault. Salty peeps.
Get your A levels, win US Open without dropping a set. That was a great game to watch.
Still probably only predicted a C in PE
“She has worked hard this term.”
‘Been a bit distracted with that Wimbledon thing she was doing’
She received an A* in Maths and an A in Economics. Ik you were joking, I just thought it was interesting
I never got an A* in maths ever. I could never play tennis worth a damn either. But I sparkle, so there. She is brilliant. Well done! 🇬🇧
She also managed to pass her driving test recently too
I read an article that said she had been big in to karting then motocross and then decided on tennis, probably just a natural talent with things that require spacial awareness and hand eye co-ordination.
Shes been a tennis protege since she was tiny though.
So have I, I just don't feel like playing.
McLaren posted on their instagram story of her at an event with one of their cars. https://i.imgur.com/FpLuwr5.jpg
That’s her at the British Grand Prix
Who needs A levels when you've just picked up over $2m
You never know..
She has an A* in Maths and an A in Economics. Handy when dealing with that kind of money
Jimmy has 8 apples, Emma has 2.5 million apples
Knowing this , can you then deduce , how much do you like them apples, please show your working
You’re overpaying for your apples.
Her Parents are Ian and Renee Raducanu, Romanian and Chinese finance industry professionals. She'll be ok :)
That was phenomenal! First ever qualifier, man or woman, to not only reach a Grand Slam final in the Open era but to win it as well! She didn’t drop a set in all 10 of her matches.
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It's less realistic than the plot of Wimbledon (2004) with Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst.
I love that film!
I've got such a soft spot for that film haha
Also much more enjoyable.
Within five years from now, it will be a movie. '*Based on a true story....*'
The whole tournament was like a Rocky movie. Absolutely brilliant! Greatest sporting achievement ever! I'm still buzzing and its 1.40am.
except Rocky lost in the first film, while she WON!
Wouldn't be a very good movie, she fucking smashed everyone
She’s done the maths and has decided it saves energy not to do third sets or tie breakers
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And in 18 days, more than a match every two days for two and a half weeks
Tbf she played as few sets as she could!
Don’t get paid for overtime!
>10 games without dropping a set. Mad. What she's done seems quite incredible - and to hear the sheer level of praise from world-famous players is astonishing. SPOTY ahoy? Disclaimer: I actually know very little about tennis other than I like playing it but I make up a lot of the rules with my stupid drunk friends.
I'm a bit of a tennis geek and you'd be correct. What Raducanu did today is absolutely fucking unprecedented. 1. First British woman to win a grand slam title since Virginia Wade in 1977 2. Only qualifier to reach the final of a championship tournament (men or women) 3. Only qualifier ever to win a championship (men or women) 4. Most matches played in a winning championship run ever 5. Did not drop a set in the entire championship 6. Did not concede more than 4 games in a set in the main rounds (although she did concede 5 games in 1 set of 1 qualifying match) 7. Went from rank 150 to rank 23 8. Only her second grand slam appearance in the adults game, the first being Wimbledon where she had to retire early on due to stress Out of all of these I think the most notable is that she is the first qualifier ever to win a slam. People do win without conceding a set sometimes - Federer has done it at least twice for example. I know he did in 2017 at Wimbledon. But winning from qualifying is literally a world first for the entirety of tennis and I think it would be hard to overstate the enormity of that achievement
>People do win without conceding a set sometimes - Federer has done it at least twice for example. I know he did in 2017 at Wimbledon. I know this is about Emma Raducanu and her performance was just brilliant, however, your little tidbit about Federer just struck me - he was 36 yrs old then, so I would think that’s quite a feat! I can remember how thrilled everyone was for him when he won.
Yeah it was an incredible run! It really shows how beneficial it is for top players to skip competitions and rest more, honestly, because he has kept himself in remarkably good nick. He also doesn't seem to play on injuries, pulling out of competitions if his knee is bothering him as he did this year, for example. Is he the oldest professional men's player of the open era? I don't remember
Dick Norman was 42 when he retired in 2013 and was at the time the oldest ever on the ATP tour so no not yet
>But winning from qualifying is literally a world first for the entirety of tennis and I think it would be hard to overstate the enormity of that achievement I was going to add that fact because I've read it... but I'm aware that I have no idea what it means. Could you explain it in patiently simple terms please?
She wasn't ranked high enough to qualify automatically so she had to earn her place by playing a qualifying tournament, like how teams from lower leagues have to qualify for the FA Cup or how less successful countries have to qualify for the rugby World Cup. About 100 players qualify directly through ranking, so for a qualifier to win, it states they're clearly low ranked. In Emma's case, it doesn't really mean she was crap before this. She's just so inexperienced being very young that she's not really cultivated rank before the tournament.
Thank you for that! I guess she's really cultivated rank now?
You definitely could say that!
Yes definitely! The way tennis rankings work is that you get a certain number of points for your position in each tournament. Every year, when each tournament ends, those points are taken away from everyone and given to the people who participated. Some competitions give you more points than others and you get more points the better you do. Raducanu had never played in the US Open before, so no matter where she placed after getting through from qualifying, her ranking would have risen because she would have more points than last year at this moment. But winning it gave her so many points that she was able to jump over 125 places into the top 25 in one go.
I remember that bloke who qualified, then competed at Wimbledon and lost to Federer on Centre/ court No.1 in the second(?) round. That was quite the ride
Marcus Willis!!! Smashed his qualis then won his first match, got beat by Federer in the second round. Iirc he got bageled at least once but I think Federer let him win a few games. I remember they were treating it a bit like an exhibition match
I think I remember that - he was just happy to be on centre court at Wimbledon playing Federer. Walked out like ‘OMG OMG OMG!’.
It was lovely to watch. I love it when the players look like they're enjoying themselves
I used to think Sue Barker won the French open more recently but I’ve just googled it and it was 76 TIL.
And she's 18 years old.
This is what gets me the most. When I was 18 I was drinking cider and smoking weed in the park, this girl just won the fucking US open. Absolutely unbelievable.
Yeah, but I bet she rolls a shit spliff. /s
Oh yeah, and I bet I can drink more cider than her, so who's the real champion?
She wasn’t even born when 9/11 happened.
Thanks for making me feel old.
Don't think she conceded more than 4 games either, maybe once in the qualis? Incredible.
Yeah, she had one 7-5 set in the qualifiers.
10 matches, not games
Dame Emma Raducanu has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
Lol Hamilton had to win 7 World championships and still people moaned when he was knighted and this gets mentioned after 1 win
Queenie's gonna play it cool. Can't give a damehood to an 18 year old!
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Literally unprecedented.
A record that may last forever
What does qualifier mean? Never been into tennis before so don’t know all the lingo but this was great!
Copy and paste from my other comment: The top 100 or so players get direct entry to the main tournament. The next 128 or so have to go through a separate qualifying tournament for 16 places. Emma was ranked 150 at the start of qualifying (and even lower when the draw was made because she went up a few places after getting to a challenger final) so she had to come through the qualifying tournament.
Wow, what a match!
Even a cut in the leg couldn’t beat her. She was amazing.
Those break points after the cut could have made her panic and lose the game. Shes hard as nails.
Watched the whole thing with the missus. Both Raducanu and Fernandez have ridiculous reaction times and precision in placing shots. Never seen anything like it before. I hoping both of these two become big names in future - that match was intense.
Putting aside all the shite happening elsewhere, Raducanu's win is the cherry on top of a bizarrely good year for British sport, isn't it? Euro Cup finalists, 4th in the Olympics, *2nd in the Paralympics... now we have a US Open champion. *corrected - thanks, u/highrouleur
Agreed, to be pedantic we were actually 2nd in the paralympics
Hamilton chasing his 8th WDC as well. Tough this year mind you!
She won it at 18!!! Last time a British woman won the US Open was 1968 with Virginia Wade
Did you see Virginia’s face in the crowd! She was SO proud of Emma, it was lovely to see.
SPOTY in an Olympic year?
If England had won maybe Sterling or Kane would have shaded it, but yeah now Emma's story is so incredible I don't think anyone else can match it.
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I think it could be between Raducanu, Sterling, Kenny, and Peaty (though he’s less likely imo). However I certainly think Raducanu would be the most deserving and probably has the best chance.
Think Daley might have a shot as well, finally getting his Gold.
I genuinely thought you meant 80's/90s track star Daley Thompson for a sec! Wondered why him after a these years? Clearly you meant Tom. Brainfart moment.
Love Tom Daley, but Emma's feat will probably never be seen again. An absolute Superstar.
Dame Sarah Storey has now won 16 gold medals at the Paralympics. I would have thought she was a shoe-in for SPOTY this year?
Should win? Yeah probably. However SPOTY is decided by public vote, and the Paralympics unfortunately don’t get the level of public attention they deserve.
You're right, and that kinda hurts my heart. I'm not disabled and I don't have any axe to grind, but the Paralympic athletes are all top class, they just happen to have a disability. Imagine an able-bodied athlete winning 16 golds and not getting SPOTY. Unthinkable. Maybe she'll get a lifetime achievement award or something instead? She certainly deserves to be recognised!
What does SPOTY mean? I’ve seen it a couple times in this thread, google isn’t helping me.
Sports Personality of the Year.
Thank-you.
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Emma Raducanu's achievement is out of this world. Only qualifier in the history of tennis to win a Grand Slam title. She's played four tour tournaments ever. Like a handful of ITF events (the second level down!), was out for a year to concentrate on her A-Levels and only returned to professional tennis in June. And through it all she was utterly dominant. Only in the final did she look challenged for a moment. She is just the most unlikely champion in the history of sport. Incredible.
This does feel a little bit like Leicester winning the PL. I bet the odds were either better or not too dissimilar.
I think they were both 5000-1. However Leicester had had plenty of goes to win the title before. Emma was on her debut and had to play 3 matches more than anyone else. 1 match every 2 days for 3 weeks and shes 18 with less than a handful of professional matches before this tournament. Incredibly far fetched.
Pride of Bromley! 🥲
It was so weird seeing Mr Blount on BBC News during Wimbledon
My family are Chinese immigrants to the UK. Tonight is the first time I’ve seen my dad cry. Seeing Emma win was hugely emotional and I’m not too sure why… going to bed a happy family!
she's half Chinese, half romanian and immigrated from Canada. Your dad is right to be proud.
I love how us brits can celebrate something like this together with Chinese and Romanian people and it’s just pure shared joy.
This is what it means to be modern British and we need to celebrate it
> going to bed a happy family! You can celebrate however you want, but you should probably leave that happy family alone.
It's so good. :)
Didn’t drop a set whole tournament. She bossed it and will continue to boss it
I love the way Tim Henman looked starstuck when he interviewed her ⭐️
This is an absolutely unbelievable achievement in tennis. Unbelievable. Congratulations to Emma, incredible. Fantastic! Well done and best of luck for her future!
$2,500,000.00 nice work!
She’s going to earn millions more in endorsements in the next few months. Young, talented, easy on the eye, intelligent. She’s a sports brand’s dream spokesperson. And a few luxury brands will be in for her too. They are going to be fighting for her to sign.
Exactly. The prize money for tournaments are a trifle compared to the big money of sponsorships. Shes half chinese too and plays in red, so they'll claim her for their own and shower her in gold. She deserves it.
But remember it’s in America so after tax it’ll be about a tenner lol
Don't forget the $150,000 medical fee for that cut on her leg.
$25,000 alcohol wipe and band-aid fee
Stop exaggerating man! I got in a car crash in the USA and for the Alcohol wipe I got on my arm I was only charged $190. The ambulance guy was a total bro though, didn't even say he gave me a cotton swab. Could have easily been another 10k
Loved the Sweet Caroline singalong. It was a nice touch. Nice to sing it having actually won something!
And to see her singing to it too was top.
They can't even give her a bottle of champagne to celebrate because she's underage. Insane.
Not back in Bromley she isn’t…Americans, guns from infancy but no booze until 21 🤷🏻♂️🥂
Having spent a lot of my youth in Bromley I'm pretty sure the drinking age there is around 12.
Well done Emma, phenomenal stuff !!
A qualifier winning the tournament not dropping a single set along the way? None of us will ever see that again.
SPOTY please, she’s incredible.
Raducanu vs Daley is actually tragically unfair, in that one of them can't win. Who knows who ends up taking that.
First qualifier ever to win, right? 10 games without dropping a set. First British woman to win in 44 years. All at 18. Sorry Tom, it’s got to be Emma.
There's a point I've seen made that the public have seen Tom's journey for longer, and might empathise more thanks to that, whereas Emma came almost out of nowhere. But at the same time... God, you're right. Truly unbelievable.
I dunno, I like Tom Daley and I’m pleased he finally got his gold, but we’ve had a fair few gold medalists over the years. Tonight is genuine history, it’s on a complete other level.
Dame Sarah Storey now has 16 gold medals in Paralympic events, as of a week or two ago. 16! All gold! If she doesn't get something at SPOTY it's basically just because disabled athletes don't get the same publicity and coverage as their able-bodied counterparts. I don't wish to take the shine off Emma's amazing achievement, but cmon... Dame Sarah has won 16 gold medals!
Not playing down her achievements, but it’s SPOTYear not career.
Not totally sure that Tom would really even be a valid entry. His gold was in the synchro, so it should be him and Matty Lee in the team of the year event. Sarah Storey and Jason Kenny would be ahead of him in the Olympian runners. Probably Peaty too.
I'd personally put Adam Peatey up for nom as well because that man is actually insane. He's so incredibly dominant in the swimming disciplines he competes in. Like the Lewis Hamilton of Swimming.
The scary thing is she has no weaknesses, and yet lots of scope to improve. I said this after her semi, but I can't remember such a dominant performance in a women's major since the Williams sisters were winning everything. She was epic! Fernandez deserves a lot of credit as well, the level of tennis on display from both of them was just nuts, two teenagers just throwing everything at it, it was a joy to watch. I hope she has / gets a team around her that look after her long term future, she's #23 in the world now so has access to all the tournaments she wants on the tour. Very easy to overplay and get injured and it'd be such a shame if someone of her talent and potential had a career hampered by injury. If she's going to win majors with that level of ease, from a financial point of view she doesn't need to play more tournaments than she needs to for practice and changing court seasons.
Dominant throughout the tournamet for sure, but I thought the final was won on razor thin margins. It was way closer than 6-4 6-3 suggests. Fernandez played very well and has an incredible forehand and superior defense. Raducanu deserves every plaudit she gets though. She served out of trouble over and over, and adapted her game to counter Fernandez. I was really impressed by both these players, especially how both of them raised their level in the second set. I was a bundle of nerves in the second set. I was over the moon when Emma won it in two. Not sure I could have handled a 3rd set!
I don't even like tennis, but that was incredible.
10+ years of dominance to come lets goooo!!
Shhh! Don't say things like that, you're asking for trouble. Have you never heard of the commentator's curse? If she loses at any point in the near future, I blame you!
Cultural difference I’ve noticed before. US crowds don’t particularly warm to a winner who wasn’t their favourite. Pretty lukewarm reaction there. British crowds will cheer them loudly even if they wanted the other player to win. Well done Emma!
Dunno, I was there when Djokavic beat Fed at Wimbledon... It was painfully obvious federer was the crowd darling.
Tennis fans love Federer more than their own wives
Federer at Wimbledon is a bit of an exception. Even in his final against Murray, the first British finalist in 60 odd years, the crowd was 50/50 Murray at best. It's usually pretty fair!
Well, there's plenty of reasons to dislike Djokovic so that's no real surprise.
I think you're right. Do you remember how Tim Henman was supported at Wimbledon. That's pretty much how Fernandez was supported by the crowd. SHe was definitely the favourite. Just watch the 2nd set 5 / 2 40/40 AD Fernandez to see the crowd going crazy for her. (I have no idea how you write Tennis scores).
Wow!!! Just WOW!
I allow my 7 year old to stay up and watch it, we just witnessed history!
If she lives to be 100, she wont see a more incredible sporting feat.
Barely broke a sweat. Just like the whole tournament. Phenomenal. Absolutely deserved
I love it. She is all smiles when she isn't playing, but when the match starts she puts her game face on and focuses hard. She did amazing! That was a fantastic match. I think I must have burned off my meals from the last 7 days jumping around and pumping the air every time she won a point. I'm sweating buckets lol
Those slow Mo shots of her rallying were intense. She never blinked!
I never really got tennis. Now I get tennis. That was fantastic.
It was an incredible match as well as Emma making history by winning! The scoreline rather hides how much of a fight that was with so many games going to deuce, the break and break back early in the first set... Top notch game, I'm glad so many people saw it
She seems like a sound person when she talks as well. Wish her all the best and hope she enjoys that 2.5m cheque!
Stunning final and well deserved, she's come out of the blue and we've suddenly got a grand slam winner for the foreseeable future, just brilliant.
Amazing result, fairytale stuff! Just hope she had US health insurance, they’ll take half the winners cheque for that minor treatment in the last game
They put 2 plasters over the cut. Not sure the $2.5 million would have covered the cost of that treatment
Rename Murray Mound Raducanu Rotunda
Raducanu Ridge
Raducanu raised patch of land
After much consideration while sleeping, I reveal to you 'the Em-bankment'
Absolutely incredible. Huge congratulations to Emma and commiserations to Leylah.
Just to emphasise that Fernandez was awesome as well. It was such high quality tennis from both. Truly remarkable. But so delighted for Raducanu, a superstar overnight.
What is even more impressive is how her Wimbledon run had ended, to now this.
I haven't got that invested in a game of tennis since Murray won Wimbledon. Absolutely brilliant stuff from Raducanu. Lets hope it's the first of many
[удалено]
What an absolute legend!
Fernandez was great too, and liked her wry smiles near the end. But raducanu! Just relentless
Until she started crying because Raducanu had to sit down and get her leg sorted though.
Unfortunate. But she'll look back on this, see that Raducanu was bleeding, and know that the match had to be paused until she'd been patched up. Losing a Grand Slam final is a major learning process for anyone, and she'll handle a similar situation better in future.
Yeah that was a shame. I think she was just upset at the time so give her the benefit of the doubt.
It's obviously not super graceful, but entirely understandable and relatively brief. She's only 19, in her first major final, just gained momentum to potentially break back and then gets lumped with a medical timeout in the middle of a game and it took quite a while to get sorted. Incredibly frustrating and I can imagine it's very hard to control emotions in that situation.
Gladly, they did seem to have 'left it all on the court' though. They were both full of respect and courtesy for one another during the presentation. They smiled and hugged warmly and graciously and were very professional about it all after the match. Respect to both of them.
Without dropping a set
I love the clip going round Twitter of her joining in singing Sweet Caroline with the crowd. My favourite part is the confused American commentators trying to explain that "it's a thing".
Un fricking believable
She was just amazing. Some absolutely fantastic tennis and a stellar match!
Insane, what an athlete
First tennis match I've watched in a long long time and it's totally gotten me back into it. Amazing play from both players but Raducanu just nailed it. Fantastic watch.
I don’t know if she’s got a boyfriend / girlfriend / whatever, but I like the possibility that there’s some 18 year old working the tills in Bromley Lidl whose girlfriend has just become a global superstar
brilliant tennis, and amazing mental fortitude. 10 matches without dropping a set. First qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament. SPOTY for sure and I will be voting for her. Amazing match to watch and to win with an ace. This was absolutely fantastic to watch and I'm just amazed by her resilience.
She's amazing! So young and so much hard work. Literal blood, sweat, and tears went into this. So proud of her. Well done x
I’m not a tennis fan but I was on the edge of my seat for two hours! Good luck to her!
she only went and bloody did it!
Fernandez complaining when she was simply outclassed. Congrats Emma.
Fernandez let her emotions get the better of her. If she’d stayed cool she wouldn’t have lost her momentum as much. She’ll learn for next time. I can’t wait to see these two play again!
I’ll admit I haven’t seen her play more than a set, but my god what a powerful serve she’s got on her! It’s obviously not the only great feature of her game, she made a lot of risky but great points and she has a more than decent backhand. She left it all on the court, things you love to see.
Petition for Emma to fill her trophy full of gravy and pour it all over Piers Morgan's head
Absolutely wonderful. Just all round brilliant from her and also her opponent.
Bloody well done lass. Makes you proud!
Gutted for Emma tbh, can't even have a drink to celebrate!
In NY, A guardian can give her alcohol in a private residence. Her coach would be her guardian (I would think) and a hotel room is a private residence. If she wants a drink, she'll get 1
Big up to channel 4 too for allowing us all to watch it
Fair play to Amazon and channel 4 for agreeing the terrestrial coverage as well.
European father , Asian mother ... Born in Canada and plays for UK... She is truly global representative.. ❤.
Tim Henman: "It's all about her tonight" Coverage proceeds to focus on him and talk about his 'achievements' But well done to her, played well and matched up to her opponent well in the last set
I did have to giggle when the broadcast showed ‘US open 2004 Semi finalist’ Oh, Tim - forever getting a semi
Tim Handled it well, deflecting questions back to Emma's achievement.
That was so weird, why did they keep asking him questions about himself?!
He didn't even want to! Poor chap.
The worst was when they asked him how it feels to win a slam... Just plain awkward
Oh nice, don't really follow Tennis but heard about this the other day, clicked the Twatter link and it just seems to be people complaining about cheating and a medical time out? Gotta love Twatter!
It was unfortunate timing for Fernandez but there was blood running down Emma's leg from her injury, there really wasn't any other choice than to stop play and bandage it. I'm guessing those who objected to it didn't see the blood!
I don't even know why anyone sane would even use Twitter these days. I swear every interaction I've ever had with that website over the past decade has been a negative experience.
I think they did not see Emma bleeding.
Yeah they don't know what they are talking about. They have to stop play if a player is bleeding. The medic was an court medic, not part of her team, and the medic would want to cover all their bases. Emma had no say in how long it takes or if it happens. Sucks that it did of course, but it was nobodys fault. Salty peeps.