So much history has been made at the US Open this year, and one of the most impressive stats started building the week before the US Open—in the qualifying.
With her 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 18-ranked Maria Sakkari in the semifinals on Thursday night, 18-year-old Brit Emma Raducanu has become the first qualifier in the Open Era, man OR woman, to reach a Grand Slam final.
Eight qualifiers—five men, three women—had reached Grand Slam semifinals before in the Open Era, but none of them ever went any further:
~ John McEnroe at 1977 Wimbledon (lost in semifinals)
~ Bob Giltinan at 1977 Australian Open [December] (lost in semifinals)
~ Christine Dorey at 1978 Australian Open (lost in semifinals)
~ Filip Dewulf at 1997 French Open (lost in semifinals)
~ Alexandra Stevenson at 1999 Wimbledon (lost in semifinals)
~ Vladimir Voltchkov at 2000 Wimbledon (lost in semifinals)
~ Nadia Podoroska at 2020 French Open (lost in semifinals)
~ Aslan Karatsev at 2021 Australian Open (lost in semifinals)
Raducanu heads into the final having won nine matches in a row—three in qualifying, six in the main draw—and hasn’t even lost a set. She hasn’t even been pushed to a tie-break in any of those 18 sets, and only one of them even went to 7-5.
The No. 150-ranked Brit will face No. 73 Leylah Fernandez of Canada for the title.