Emma Raducanu

Emma Raducanu: A New Star in Tennis

British tennis player Emma Raducanu took the hearts of tennis fans by storm with her stunning run at the 2021 US Open. She was born on 13 November 2002 in Toronto, Canada, and moved to England, near London, with her parents at the age of two. Raducanu has an international family background: her mother Renee was born in China, while her father Ian is originally from Romania. Both parents are academics who work in finance, something that has clearly rubbed off on daughter Emma. In the summer of 2021, she successfully sat her A-Levels, earning an A* in Maths and an A in Economics.

As a child, Emma Raducanu was active in a wide range of sports, playing basketball and golf, doing karting and motocross, regularly skiing and horse riding, and taking ballet lessons. She's also a big Formula 1 fan. Her sporting role models are Simona Halep and Li Na, both of whom come from countries with which Raducanu has family roots. Standing at 1.75 metres, the right-hander holds both British and Canadian citizenship and speaks fluent English, Romanian, and Mandarin. While she feels comfortable on any surface, Raducanu's favourite is hard court, the surface of her first major title.

An Offensively Minded Baseline Player

Emma Raducanu is an aggressive baseliner who always aims to strike the ball as early as possible, while it's still rising, and send it back over the net with real force. With her offense-first game, she typically produces plenty of winners over the course of a match. Raducanu is known for her flat, hard-hit groundstrokes. Her two-handed backhand has been called “world-class” by former British No. 1 Anne Keothavong. The young Brit also excels at slicing her backhand one-handed, using it to take pace off the rally and disrupt her opponents' rhythm, although she doesn't use this shot very often.

Emma Raducanu also has a fairly powerful forehand, though it's not quite as consistent, reliable, or precise as her backhand. She also has a strong first serve, reaching speeds of up to 180 km/h. Her most effective weapon when serving has proven to be her wide slice serve, which she used frequently on her way to winning the US Open, sealing the title, in fact, with an ace in the final. At around 150 km/h, Raducanu's second serve is faster than average, allowing her to play offensively in rallies even after missing her first serve. Her returns are equally impressive.

Raducanu pushes her opponents deep behind their own baseline by taking the ball early and hitting hard down the line. She attacks short serves early to produce direct winners off her returns. With her excellent mobility and court awareness, superb footwork, outstanding speed, and remarkable anticipation, the young Brit is always able to defend effectively when needed. While Raducanu builds most of her rallies from the baseline, her effective drop shots also make her a solid net player.

From Promising Junior to Grand Slam Champion

As a junior player, the Brit with the winning smile claimed several titles in India and reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, her biggest Grand Slam success at junior level. On her way to the quarter-final there, Emma Raducanu beat her eventual finalist-to-be from her sensational New York triumph, Leylah Fernandez, in the second round. In 2018 the British rising star made her debut on the professional tour, though she alternated between junior and professional tournaments through 2018 and 2019. In December 2019, she won the $25,000 ITF NECC-Deccan tournament in Pune, India, her biggest title until her US Open triumph. Emma Raducanu made her first appearance in the main draw of a WTA tournament as a wildcard at the Nottingham Open in early summer 2021, but lost her first-round match to fellow Brit Harriet Dart.

In June, Emma Raducanu was awarded another wildcard, this time for Wimbledon, securing her first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament as a professional. At just 18 years old, she became the youngest British woman in the Open Era to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam. However, she had to retire from her fourth-round match due to breathing difficulties. By reaching the fourth round, Emma Raducanu climbed into the world's top 200, having started the tournament ranked 338th. After Wimbledon, she parted ways with her coach Nigel Sears, the father-in-law of Andy Murray, and hired her former junior coach Andrew Richardson. Ahead of the US Open, she reached her first WTA 125 final in Chicago and climbed to No. 150 in the WTA rankings.

2021 US Open Champion

Although Emma Raducanu had climbed from No. 338 to No. 150 in the WTA rankings within two months, that still wasn't enough to qualify directly for the main draw of the US Open. Instead, she had to get through three rounds of qualifying, all of which she won without dropping a set. Once in the main draw, she marched on to the final without losing a set, beating a number of higher-ranked players along the way. This made her the first qualifier in the Open Era to not only reach the semi-final and final of the US Open, but also go on to win the entire tournament.

In a thrilling match packed with high-quality rallies, Raducanu beat Leylah Fernandez in straight sets. It was the first all-teenage US Open final since 1999, when Serena Williams won the first of her many Grand Slam titles against Martina Hingis. With this success, her first-ever WTA-level title, Emma Raducanu became the first British Grand Slam champion since 1977, when the legendary Virginia Wade, who was watching in the stands, incidentally, triumphed at Wimbledon. Winning the US Open catapulted the young Brit to No. 23 in the WTA rankings, overtaking Johanna Konta as British No. 1 in women's tennis.

Discover Emma Raducanu's Tennis Gear at Tennis-Point

Ever since her sensational triumph at the US Open, sponsors and equipment brands have been queuing up for Emma Raducanu. At Tennis-Point, you can discover and order online the latest collection of her tennis gear. To best support the footwork, court coverage, and speed that Raducanu is known for, she relies on Nike tennis shoes and apparel. And to do justice to her aggressive style of play, she uses Wilson tennis rackets. We hope you enjoy browsing our online tennis shop, and have lots of fun on court with your new Emma Raducanu tennis gear!