Teenager Emma Raducanu reaches semi-finals of US Open on debut
British teenager Emma Raducanu continued her fairytale run at the US Open by reaching the semi-finals with a dominant straight-set win over Swiss 11th seed Belinda Bencic.
Raducanu, 18, again showed all of her quality and composure in a 6-3 6-4 win.
Victory means she will rise to the cusp of the world’s top 50 and become the British women’s number one.
Raducanu will play Maria Sakkari in Thursday’s semis after the Greek beat Czech fourth seed Karolina Pliskova.
It will be the second of the women’s singles semi-finals and will be played about 21:00 local time in New York (02:00 BST, Friday).
In only her second Grand Slam appearance, world number 150 Raducanu has become only the third woman ranked outside the top 100 to reach a US Open semi-final.
After coming through three qualifying matches to reach the main draw, Raducanu is yet to drop a set in her eight matches at Flushing Meadows.
With her run in New York, Raducanu has recorded several notable achievements, including becoming:
- the first qualifier to reach the last four at Flushing Meadows
- the fourth female qualifier to reach any Grand Slam semi-final
- the first British woman to reach a US Open semi-final since Jo Durie in 1983
- the youngest British woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final for 46 years
When she sealed victory with her first match point, Raducanu clasped her head with her hands before 24-year-old Olympic champion Bencic sportingly came around the net to warmly embrace the victor.
A beaming smile broke out across the Briton’s face as she pointed to her team – in a mixture of shock and celebration – and contemplated what she had just achieved on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I’m so, so happy to come through,” said Raducanu, who earns prize money of $675,000 (£490,000) for reaching the last four.
“Belinda is such a great opponent and in unbelievable form, her ball speed caught me off guard so I had to adjust and adapt.
“I’m just taking care of what I can control and I’m on my own journey.”