Danny Willett arguably. Not the same publicity though.
Emma Raducanu: US Open Champion
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
Though I'm not sure it's a changing of the guard moment as there aren't any guards
Serena was the guard but hasn't won a major since having her daughter.
Not to take anything away from her, but the quality of women's tennis is so poor these days imo. You'd never see this in the ATP.
It's not an isolated case either. Clijsters, Henin, Williams, ... have all come out of nowhere back to being the top dog without too much troubles in the past. You have a very small crop of talented players and the rest is average at best.
Hope Raducanu wins it though.
It's not an isolated case either. Clijsters, Henin, Williams, ... have all come out of nowhere back to being the top dog without too much troubles in the past. You have a very small crop of talented players and the rest is average at best.
Hope Raducanu wins it though.
There is nothing to take away from her
She’s 18, she’s won 3 qualifying matches and essentially 6 further rounds without once dropping a set beating the Olympic Champion and one of the hardest hitters in the game in Sakkari to reach the Final.
All from start to end without a single set dropped
We can talk about the quality on the players in the women’s sport for sure but it’s still tough enough to regard Emma’s achievement here as nothing short of a miracle Tournament for Emma through sheer determination and hard work.
Watching the media build her up, before she ultimately loses and they then crush her with all sort of stories afterwards.
It's the British tradition after all.
It's the British tradition after all.
This will be fun. Tennis is at it's greatest when there are new players on the huge stage. Quality, fitness and nerves all equally key.
Also shut it going on about the quality of woman's tennis. Woman's tennis is great. Athletics isn't "low quality" these days either just because there's no Usain Bolt.
Also shut it going on about the quality of woman's tennis. Woman's tennis is great. Athletics isn't "low quality" these days either just because there's no Usain Bolt.
If it's great, it's because it's unpredictable since the quality is so average and everyone can beat everyone. Fernandez took out three top-5 players this US Open, if the top of the field is anywhere near consistent in their level such things just don't happen.
Could you imagine a male player ranked outside the top 50 beating Zverev, Medvedev and Tsitsipas in the same tournament? Of course not (and even those players aren't remotely as consistent as the Big 3 are/were).
Definitely agreed on the bolded part, which is why I said I don't want to take anything away from her. She thoroughly deserves to be where she is right now.
Even if you think the overall womens field is on average weaker ( which i agree with), Raducanu's game is very modern and strong. I think she could easily bag 3/4 slams and most would bet on more than that if she wins her first this weekend.
They'll both be top 50 soon enough. To me this is like saying the PL used to ´be shit because if it wasn't Rooney could never had made the difference as a teenager.
There's obviously no super great at the peak of their abilities in the female game right now. I guess it's a matter of opinion whether that speaks about the quality.
What was Boris' ranking before Wimbledon 1985?
Are you comparing her with Becker and Rooney, both superstars and one of the best of their generation in what they did?
I think Raducanu is a great talent who will soon enough be top 10 if she continues like this but that she is also being helped by a weak women's field where no one stands out and where you can beat everyone when you're on your day. If she was doing this twenty years ago and was beating Williams, Clijsters, Henin, Davenport, Mauresmo, ... on her way to GS semis and finals aged 18 I'd think she was headed for a Serena Williams-like career.
It's not that long ago when Osaka was winning Grand Slams aged 21-22 and we thought she was on her way to dominating female tennis.
Boris was the player they were comparing her to on the radio as the only real equivalent, although he won Queens before Wimbledon.
There's no real way to tell if someone is winning because they're so good or if the opposition is weak though.
I know there are signs but there's so many cases especially in football where people ask 'were team a good or team b just bad?'
Overnight Superstar and a marketing dream, especially with a void at the top of the womens game with Serena nearly finished. Likeable personality, enjoyable style of play, multicultural background and a pretty face, kid is going to be everywhere in the next few months.
Hard to tell yeah, especially since a very good team can make another good team look bad.
It's not like she's luckily stumbling her way to a couple of wins, she hasn't lost a set yet so she's definitely good. I just think it's hard to tell right now HOW good because there is no excellent competition (imo).
Like I said I hope she wins because it would be an incredible story. She deserves it, but so does Hernandez to be fair.
Not the same but we've seen Karatsev come through qualifying and beat Schwartzman, Felix and Dimitrov to make a semi final in the AO this year.
Cecchinato beat PCB, Goffin and Djokovic to make the RG SFs a few years ago too.
I don't think the WTA is as weak as you make out, they just lack elite level players but there are plenty of good players in my opinion.
She's starting out like the best of them is all I'm saying.
It's too early to tell. On the whole I think the mass of players has improved though and that's part of the reason no one is dominating right now. And there's no Williams or Graf at the peak of their game at the moment obviously, so I guess right at the top I actually agree that the quality isn't the same.
She's brilliant! It's just amazing seeing someone break through when you aren't sure how good they are and them constantly surprising you. Well worth the late night to watch the semis!
We still do think she’s on her way mate to dominate.
Osaka Is only 23 now, and she’s won a GS every year since 2018, her most recent GS Victory at the Aus Open this year.
She’s not exactly fallen off a cliff, not that you were saying she had of course.
She’s elite though, and still not at her full potential.
I’d love to See Emma play Barty or Osaka, that will be an exciting measure of where Emma is at
Definitely agreed on that.
But in that respect, Osaka, while indeed obviously still great, is suspect to having off-days and can be caught out that way. So then my argument comes into play for me that there's not a dominating female tennis player at the moment. But maybe I'm just being too harsh, dunno. Anyway, excited for the final.
Has to be said that the womens equivalent of the Fed/Nadal/Djokovic period was probably late 90's to mid 00's when you had Serena/Venus/Hingis/Davenport/Henin/Clijsters/Capriati/Mauresmo and probably more who should be mentioned. Could be 50 years before those eras are matched on either tour.
She's moved into 32nd in the rankings, if she wins tomorrow she will go into 23rd.
Yeah I’m not really getting this argument that I see a lot. “The media” was overwhelmingly positive about the England football team and players that missed penalties, for example. really nothing like it was 20 years ago.
Of course there is social media, which is a completely different kettle of fish, and not really limited to issues in Britain. We’ve seen an example of that with Sloane Stevens already.
Maybe you’re just referring to Piers Morgan, who is a cnut and best ignored at all times.
You never criticized a Utd player before then?
Osaka just seems to struggle with her mental health and it affects her performance on the court. If she can get past whatever mental health problems she's dealing with (much easier said than done, I know), I can see her becoming quite dominant.
She's proven often enough that she's a top level competitor, and it seems harsh to mark her as simply being inconsistent when we know the issues she's had.
Reminds me of the Euro to GBP conversions that go on whenever we make a transfer
Speaking of mental health and Tennis
anyone watched “untold stories: Mardy Fish” on Netflix?
great watch
anyone watched “untold stories: Mardy Fish” on Netflix?
great watch
And simultaneously claiming benefits apparently, we really should make up our minds what we are supposed to be angry at them for!
I don't know "€50 million = £50 million" is better than "lived in Britain from 2-years-old = lived in Britain for 2 years"
There's a difference between criticising a United player who fans have watched for a number of seasons(Tbh I really don't criticise United players on here all that much)and feeling the need to jump into a thread celebrating a great achievement by a young sportswoman and claiming well actually it's only because women tennis is average and it wouldn't happen in the mens event.You never criticized a Utd player before then?
It's very dull and boring.
Despite the hilarity of the second comment, is the first one even true? I’d suspect more people have Amazon Prime than pay for a BT sport sub for example.
Those are not mutually exclusive.
We live in a world where Leicester have won the PL and a grand slam final is going to be played by two players that had previously played a total of .... 14 Grand Slam games previously between them, it's absolutely insane.
I mean Tennis has had it's fair share of stunning long odds winners/deep runs, but it's reasonably rare for it to happen at Flushing.... French, yes.... Wimbledon sure if you are a heavy hitter who's accuracy is on fire... the Australian Open back in the day when no one cared about it..... but just yeah, the US has usually been relatively safe from massive upsets at least.
I mean Tennis has had it's fair share of stunning long odds winners/deep runs, but it's reasonably rare for it to happen at Flushing.... French, yes.... Wimbledon sure if you are a heavy hitter who's accuracy is on fire... the Australian Open back in the day when no one cared about it..... but just yeah, the US has usually been relatively safe from massive upsets at least.
Maybe nitpicking here but isn't a Grand Slam if you win all 4? Point being this is just a Slam final
I thought that was the golden slam?
It certainly feels like that. Some people boil watching sport down to such a joyless spreadsheet of averages, rankings and unforced errors etc...Is a sport really considered better per se if it's dominated by a single or small group of players?
It's slightly confusing. Each of the 4 major is a grand slam but winning all 4 in the same year is winning the Grand slam. While each is winning a grand slam. Golden slam is winning Olympics gold in addition.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(tennis)
So this is just once grand slam final, and I don't think it's incorrect to say that as it's one of the 4 grand slams. But winning all 4 in same year is The Grand Slam, or calendar Grand Slam...
Not sure if I am making sense.
The majors (AO, RG, W, Flushing) are gland slam events, winning them all equals winning the Grand Slam. Winning them all in a year is a calendar grand slam
It's a stupid name thou - slam...
It's a stupid name thou - slam...
Yes very American in terminology. They love making up stuff like that. I recall the Serena Slam whatever that was.
Back to ER. She has really come on since that Wimbledon meltdown. Fernandez will have the crowd on her side I feel but it’s going to be close
There are some real barrel-scraping articles about Raducanu peppering every sports website now, including this glorious insight.
https://www.skysports.com/tennis
https://www.skysports.com/tennis