Reigning U. S. Open champion Emma Raducanu feels her run to the 2021 Flushing Meadows final along with Canadian Leylah Fernandez made a statement on behalf of the next generation and underlined the depth of women's tennis.
Born a couple of months apart in 2002, teenagers Raducanu and Fernandez rose from obscurity last year at Flushing Meadows to contest the first Grand Slam final between unseeded players.
"I think the message is how strong the next generation is," Raducanu, now 19 and ranked 11th in the world, told reporters on Friday. "I mean, we're both really young. We're going to be playing the sport for a long time.
