The 2021 US Open women’s singles tournament is now entering the quarter-finals, and two of the last eight ladies standing are teenagers.
Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu are both in their first Grand Slam quarter-finals after defying the US Open 2021 odds with impressive victories in the last couple of rounds.
However, these Cinderella teens’ paths to the title will be tough, with several top seeds from the WTA Tour still alive and ready to claim the crown.
Read on below as SBOTOP delivers the latest news and updates from the women’s tournament of the US Open.
Raducanu routs Rogers, who expects online abuse after defeat
Emma Raducanu’s incredible US Open run continues. The 18-year-old Briton is through to her first Grand Slam quarter-final after routing American Shelby Rogers, 6-2 6-1.
Raducanu, who also made waves after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon, has yet to lose a single set in the tournament. She has also lost just four games in her last two matches after a dominant 6-0 6-1 win over Sara Sorribes Tormo in the third round.
Raducanu admits she felt some nerves early on – she had her serve broken in the opening game – but duly shook them off to grab the biggest win of her young career.
“It feels absolutely amazing. Shelby is a great opponent, she’s done so well in the US Open and she’s had a great week so I knew it was going to be a tough match,” Raducanu said post-match.
“But I’m so happy to have come through and have managed to overcome some of the nerves at the beginning.”
As for Rogers, who was hailed for her stunning win over No. 1 seed Ashleigh Barty in the third round, she is already expecting to receive a wave of “death threats” and other abuse on social media after her shock defeat to the British teen.
“Obviously we appreciate the spotlight in those moments, but then you have today and I’m going to have nine million death threats and whatnot,” Rogers said. “It’s very much polarising, one extreme to the other very quickly.”
Raducanu moves on to the quarter-finals, where she will meet Olympic gold medallist and 2019 US Open semi-finalist Belinda Bencic. Bencic won an epic 84-minute set to defeat Iga Swiatek in the fourth round.
Champion-slayer Fernandez comes back again to beat Kerber
Joining Raducanu in the quarter-finals is fellow teenage sensation Leylah Fernandez, who brought down her second former US Open champion in a row in 2016 winner Angelique Kerber. Fernandez had also defeated No. 3 seed and defending champion Naomi Osaka in the previous round.
Just like in the Osaka match, the Canadian teen lost the first set to her opponent, but she proceeded to win the second set via tiebreak and went on to win the third set.
While her US Open 2022 results have caught many by surprise, Fernandez always expected she would eventually reach this stage.
“I expected that one day my tennis game is going to come through and that I’m going to be on the big stage in front of a big crowd playing against big players, and also getting the wins,” she said. “I’m not surprised of anything that’s happening right now.”
Kerber was also impressed by what she saw in Fernandez and said the teen has a bright future ahead of her if she can play at this level consistently.
“If she plays like this, consistently plays the whole year, the next tournaments like this, the next rounds, I think she has a great future,” Kerber told reporters.
Fernandez will now move on and face No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.
Former champ Andreescu succumbs to Sakkari
While Fernandez will still be fighting for the title in the quarter-finals, Canada’s top-ranked player – Bianca Andreescu – will not. The No. 6 seed and 2019 US Open champion fell in three sets to Greece’s Maria Sakkari.
Andreescu, who has been beset by injury issues since last year and has struggled to recapture her best tennis, had shown signs of returning to top form in the first few rounds at the US Open. But after splitting two gruelling tiebreaks against Sakkari, she finally succumbed to the No. 17 seed in the third set.
Sakkari will now move on to face No. 4 seed Karolina Pliskova, who is one of two Czech women in the quarter-finals. No. 8 seed Barbora Krejcikova is the other, and she will be facing world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
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