Briton Emma Raducanu is the second youngest woman to win a major tennis championship since Maria Sharapova was 17 at Wimbledon in 2004.
Emma Raducanu’s qualifier-to-champion run at the U.S. Open vaulted her 127 spots in the WTA rankings to a career-high No. 23 on Monday (September 13).
The 18-year-old from Britain began the year ranked 345th, rose to 179th in July by reaching Wimbledon’s fourth round in her Grand Slam debut and arrived at Flushing Meadows at 150th.
Then Raducanu won all 20 sets she played across 10 victories — three in qualifying and seven in the main draw — to become the youngest woman to win a major championship since Maria Sharapova was 17 at Wimbledon in 2004.
Raducanu is the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title, the Associated Press reported.
The player she beat 6-4, 6-3 in the final Saturday, 19-year-old Filipino-Canadian Leylah Fernandez, also made a big jump in the rankings, going from 73rd to a career-best 28th.
Ash Barty and Aryna Sabalenka stayed at Nos. 1 and 2, while 2018 and 2020 U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka slid from No. 3 to No. 5 after losing in the third round to Fernandez.
Karolina Pliskova is now No. 3, and Elina Svitolina is No. 4 after each moved up a spot by getting to the quarterfinals in New York.
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