Emma Raducanu Biography

Emma Raducanu is the tennis player who, at age 18, dashed out of semi-obscurity to win the 2021 U.S. Open.

Emma Raducanu was born in Toronto as the only child of immigrant parents from China (her mother Renee) and Romania (her father Ian). The family moved to England when Raducanu was two, and a few years later she began to play tennis and a variety of other sports. In her teens she turned her focus to tennis and had success in under-18 tournaments; in 2018, at age 15, she made the juniors quarterfinals at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

She turned pro the same year, and in 2019 won a minor tournament in India, the ITF NECC-Deccan. Her real breakthrough came in 2021, her first year playing in top-level World Tennis Association tournaments. She received a wildcard entry to Wimbledon and did well, winning her first three matches before retiring (quitting play) due to breathing difficulties in her fourth-round match against Ajla Tomljanović.

At the U.S. Open, Raducanu had to win three qualifying matches just to get into the tournament. She then proceeded to win seven straight matches without losing a set, defeating fellow teenager Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 in the final to claim the championship. It was her first WTA title of any kind, and she was the first qualifier ever to win a Grand Slam tournament in the modern era.