The country’s lack of major tennis champions is likely to increase media coverage and the burden of expectation
I was first really impressed by Emma Raducanu at Wimbledon in the round of 32 when she beat Sorana Cirstea. I was commentating on that match and she was very positive, she embraced the crowd on Court One. I looked at her as a rising prospect right then. Rising prospects, do they actually win majors? Right now in women’s tennis they do.
When you see the way Emma played her matches in New York, especially in the second week, she played at that level. She played at the level of a major champion right now in women’s tennis. What has shifted is that all the variety, the diversity of women, there’s a trickle down effect which is: “If Barbora Krejcikova can win it, I can win it. If Iga Swiatek can win it, I can win it.”
What I liked most about the final was how she handled things at the end. There was adversity, she lost the two match points and faced break point. Then somehow Emma got her feet together, because by then she was pretty nervous, and she did this mis-hit overhead winner. Late in majors when you’re trying to close it out and you’re trying to keep the adrenaline under control, you need to be able to scratch out points like that.