Emma Raducanu becomes fifth British woman in WTA rankings history to reach Top 10

Emma Raducanu has become the fifth British woman in WTA rankings history to reach the Top 10, as well as the first woman born in 2002 or later to achieve the feat.

Following Wimbledon, where she improved to 5-0 in her career in first-round matches at Grand Slams before falling to former Top 5 player Caroline Garcia in the second round, Raducanu inched up from No. 11 to No. 10 on the WTA rankings.

BRITISH WOMEN TO REACH TOP 10 ON WTA RANKINGS
Virginia Wade (reached No. 2 in 1975)
Sue Barker (reached No. 4 in 1977)
Jo Durie (reached No. 5 in 1984)
Johanna Konta (reached No. 4 in 2017)
Emma Raducanu (reached No. 10 in 2022)

She’s also the ninth British player to achieve the feat in either WTA or ATP rankings history, with four British men also reaching the Top 10: Greg Rusedski (career-high No. 4 in 1997); Tim Henman (No. 4 in 2002); Andy Murray (No. 1 in 2016); and 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist Cam Norrie (No. 10 in 2021).

Raducanu is also just the third woman born in the 2000s to reach the Top 10.

WOMEN BORN IN THE 2000s TO REACH TOP 10 ON WTA RANKINGS
Bianca Andreescu (reached No. 4 in 2019) [born in 2000]
Iga Swiatek (reached No. 1 in 2022) [born in 2001]
Emma Raducanu (reached No. 10 in 2022) [born in 2002]

Three men born in the 2000s have reached the Top 10 on the ATP rankings, too: 2001-born Jannik Sinner (career-high No. 9 in 2021); 2000-born Felix Auger-Aliassime (No. 9 in 2022); and 2003-born Carlos Alcaraz (No. 6 in 2022).

There are a few more 2000s-born players knocking on the door of the Top 10 on the women’s side, too—Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez just reached new career-highs of No. 11 and No. 14, respectively, on this week’s WTA rankings.

Raducanu has had one of the fastest ascents to the upper echelon in women’s tennis history—she only just started playing at the tour-level last June, contested her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon last July, reaching the fourth round, and then won the second Grand Slam she played at the US Open, the fewest major appearances before winning one in the Open Era for a woman OR a man.

She’s also reached another two WTA quarterfinals, at the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, Romania last fall and at the WTA 500 clay-court stop in Stuttgart this year.

As she starts playing all of these WTA events for just the second time in her life—and in many cases still the first time—it’s easy to forget that the new No. 10 is still such a new face everywhere she goes, and she’s still just at the beginning of her career.

She’ll only be playing the US Open for the second time.

“Going back to New York, it’s going to be cool because I have got a lot of experiences playing on big courts, playing with people in the stadium, playing with the spotlight on you,” she said at Wimbledon two weeks ago.

“I don’t mind that. I mean, for me, everything is learning. I’m embracing every single moment that is thrown at me.”