18 things Emma Raducanu achieved by winning the US Open

When the No. 31 seed from the qualifying draw ends up with a Grand Slam title, you know something incredble has happened—and that’s exactly what British teenager Emma Raducanu did at the US Open over the last few weeks.

Here are 18 things the 18-year-old achieved with her run in New York:

She’s the first British woman to win a Grand Slam title in more than 44 years. The last one to do it was Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977—that was actually the last time a British woman had even reached a Grand Slam final.

She won her first major in just her second major appearance, the women’s Open Era record. The previous record for fewest majors played before winning one was four—Monica Seles at 1990 Roland Garros and Bianca Andreescu at the 2019 US Open.

She won her first major in just her fourth tour-level main draw, also a women’s Open Era record. Before the US Open, she had only played tour-level main draws at Nottingham, Wimbledon and San Jose, all as a wild card—she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon but fell first round at the other two events.

She’s the first qualifier in the Open Era, male or female, to win a Grand Slam title. No qualifier had even gotten to the final of a major before. Eight qualifiers—five men and three women—had made the semifinals of one before, starting with John McEnroe at Wimbledon in 1977 and most recently Aslan Karatsev at the Australian Open earlier this year, but none of them ever made it any further than that.

She’s the third-lowest-ranked woman to win a major in WTA rankings history. Two women have won majors unranked, though both had previously been No. 1—Evonne Goolagong at the 1977 Australian Open [Dec.] and Kim Clijsters at the 2009 US Open.

She now has over nine times the career prize money than when she got to the US Open. She went in with $303,376, pocketed $2.5 million, and now has $2,803,376.

She’s the first player born in 2002 or later to win a major. She’s the third player born in the 2000s to win one, after Andreescu (born in 2000) and Iga Swiatek (born in 2001).

She’s the youngest player, male or female, to win a major since a 17-year-old Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004. She's the first under 19 to do it since then.

She’s the youngest player, male or female, to win the US Open since a 17-year-old Serena in 1999. Raducanu’s also the first player under 19 to do THAT since then.

She’s just the fifth player in the last 40 years, male or female, to win their first tour-level title at a major. The other four all did it at Roland Garros: Mats Wilander (1982), Gustavo Kuerten (1997), Jelena Ostapenko (2017) and Swiatek (2020).

She’s gotten off to a perfect 7-0 start to her career against Top 50 players, not even losing a set in any of those matches, and not even being pushed to a tie-break. That includes two Top 20 wins in Flushing Meadows, beating No. 12 Belinda Bencic in the quarterfinals, 6-3, 6-4, and No. 18 Maria Sakkari in the semifinals, 6-1, 6-4.

She’s the first woman to win the US Open without dropping a set since Serena in 2014. And the first woman at any major since Swiatek at Roland Garros last year.

She’s the fifth British player in the Open Era, male or female, to win a major. The first four were Ann Jones (1969 Wimbledon), Sue Barker (1976 French Open), Wade (1968 US Open, 1972 Australian Open and 1977 Wimbledon) and, on the men's side, Andy Murray (2012 US Open, 2013 Wimbledon and 2016 Wimbledon).

She’s the youngest British player in the Open Era, male or female, to win a major. Barker held the distinction before her, winning 1976 Roland Garros when she was 20.

She’s the third Canadian-born player in the Open Era, male or female, to win a major. The first two were Andreescu at the 2019 US Open, obviously, as well as Mary Pierce, who won two career Grand Slam titles at the 1995 Australian Open and 2000 Roland Garros (Pierce played for France but was born in Montreal).

She rose 127 spots up the rankings from No. 150 to No. 23. No. 150 had actually been her career-high, so this was her simultaneous Top 100 and Top 50 debuts.

She’s the new British women’s No. 1. She was the British No. 3 going into the US Open, but she now jumps both Heather Watson and Johanna Konta to become British No. 1. Konta had held the top spot for 310 consecutive weeks since 2015.

She’s actually tied for highest-ranked British player right now, male or female. The British men’s No. 1, Dan Evans, is currently No. 23 on the ATP rankings. Evans also had an excellent run in New York, matching his career-best Grand Slam performance with a run to the fourth round, where he fell to eventual champion Daniil Medvedev.