Emma Raducanu makes tennis history with US Open final win

There are so many basic milestones that Emma Raducanu has not yet recorded in a professional tennis career that only began in full three months ago. She has never been a direct entrant to a grand slam main draw, she is yet to play a tour-level three set match and she has not even won a match at a WTA tour event.

Yet sometimes a special player comes along and renders convention irrelevant. After three weeks and one of the most astonishing breakout runs in living memory, Raducanu marked herself as a grand slam champion for ever. She ended the US Open where she started it: fearlessly dominating from inside the baseline as she defeated Leylah Annie Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 in a match of the highest intensity to win the title without dropping a set.

Emma Raducanu beats Leylah Fernandez in US Open women’s final – as it happened
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This is just Raducanu’s second grand slam main draw appearance and no woman in the Open era had ever won in so few attempts. Along with that distinction is a seemingly endless list of records: Raducanu is the first British woman to win a grand slam title since Virginia Wade’s Wimbledon victory in 1977. She is the first qualifier, man or woman, to win a grand slam title. At 18, she is the youngest grand slam champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004.

From the very beginning of the first slam final between teenagers in 22 years, both players refused to be affected by the moment. Throughout the first set they wrestled the baseline from each other, defended with elite movement and imbued every game with sheer intensity. Raducanu started the match by controlling the early exchanges by constantly changing direction off both wings, and she set the tone by snapping a cross-court backhand winner in the opening game.

Emma Raducanu stretches for a backhand. Photograph: TPN/Getty Images
After holding serve, Raducanu immediately imposed herself on return, breaking on her sixth break point. But Fernandez responded with her own suffocating return game, breaking back on her fourth break point for 2-1. After 22 long minutes of sheer intensity, they had played only three games.

As she faced her toughest opponent of the championships, Raducanu was at times visibly frustrated by her level as Fernandez’s defence eked out errors that the Briton’s other opponents could not. But as the set wore on, she again began to dominate the key points with her firepower off both wings.

Raducanu made her run at 5-4 with a series of suffocating returns, snapping a cross-court backhand return winner to bring up double set point. Fernandez saved both, including with a bold series of forehands and then Raducanu missed a third. But Raducanu remained on top of the baseline; she drilled a winning inside-out forehand to bring up a fourth set point and then dispatched another big forehand to take the set.

The momentum continued to move Raducanu’s direction as she marched up to lead 6-4, 1-0 and 0-40 on Fernandez’s serve. But with her back to the wall, the Canadian stepped forward and swung freely. She saved all three and then used the momentum to break serve for 2-1. Raducanu responded immediately, calling on her immense return of serve and breaking back with an angled cross-court return winner. After holding serve, she played a ballistic return game and broke again for 4-2 with a running forehand down-the-line passing shot winner.

Two match points came soon after for Raducanu at 5-2, but both times she struck nervous forehands and missed. Fernandez, battle-hardened by four consecutive three-setters, began a last ditch charge. She held serve and then she had the momentum as she attacked Raducanu’s serve. At 30-30, she had her opponent on the ropes and nailed a winning forehand, but as the Briton slid towards a defensive backhand she grazed her left knee as she slid.

Raducanu was bleeding and so with the score at 6-4, 5-3 and a break point down in the biggest match of her life, she was forced to take a medical timeout. Fernandez, who had the mo