Teens Raducanu, Fernandez advance to U.S. Open women's final

Changing of the guard in Women's tennis.

I just watched a bit of Emma's match, and I would add that I feel a change in style is also coming. The Williams era made "overpowering the opponent" a main winning strategy; the new generation is winning more by "outsmarting the opponent", and the heavy hitters become frustrated and start making errors. Similar to the success of Djokovic style

Leylah Fernandez is a wonderful young athlete. She is so mature and handles interviews with such class. Sponsors should convert from you-know-who to her quickly.

Yes - incredible young talent.

And most of the top players defeated by them like Osaka, Bencic, Sabelanka, Sakkari etc are not exactly old - low to mid 20s as are many of the other top seeds Barty etc.

Add to Emma & Leylah the likes of 17 yr old Coco Gauff and others, womens tennis has never been as unpredictable and exciting.

Imagine being a veteran at 23.

To all the usual whiners complaining Emma Raducanu is not really British, she is more British than Greg Rusedski was or many of the other so-called 'Brit tennis players' who take UK citizenship in their 20s after having been brought up and learning their tennis outside the UK.

Emma has lived in England since the age of 2, attended local schools throughout, and is very much a product of the LTA and it's tennis development academies in the UK. She is culturally and socially way more British than people like Rusedski, Norie, Edmund, Konta, etc.

To all the usual whiners complaining Emma Raducanu is not really British

To be honest, I haven't notice anyone complaining. Maybe some snarky comments on Twitter. BTW, the front cover of the Daily Express was ironic.

At the end of the day, she's more British than you-know-who is Japanese.

Anycase, these two new stars are really multicultural. I have no idea how good Radders' Chinese and Romanian are, but Fernandez can also speak French and Spanish. Her and her father switch between three languages effortlessly. I wonder how her Tagalog is.

I have no idea who is going to come out on top in the finals. The Brit has gone 9 straight matches without dropping a set, and only two sets went as much as 6-4, I think. The Canadian has had to play higher-ranked players, but she was also taken to 3 sets in her last 4 matches. This is going to be interesting. Especially when it involves players who actually enjoy playing.

It is important to note a once in the professional era for a qualifier to make the final. Radacanu has made history.

Fernandez and Radacanu make for the first final with both having asian ancestry. Their personalities and on court behavior has been not only exemplary, it has been inspirational and a joy to watch. Refreshing to watch Fernandez beat Osaka(3rd seed), Kerber(16), Svitolina(5) and Sabalenka(2). Unreal poise and excellent play. It's great to watch players enjoying themselves with spring to their steps and genuine smiles, without showing the uptight mental stress a player must endure.

During the break of the two semi final matches there was a tribute to the original 9 professional women's tennis players with Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, and 6 members of that group. It was a group of women who broke off from what was women's professional tennis, putting their careers on the line, signing with a new tour for 1 dollar a piece because women were highly underpaid in comparison to the men. The success of their risk and determination led to greater pay for women's professional sports, whether it be tennis, or soccer, or basketball or whatever. Watching the two young players reminds how far women's tennis has come thanks to the original 9.

Especially when it involves players who actually enjoy playing

I strongly agree. When watching these two, there's a feeling that they're having fun. There's a spark and a smile that I don't see from Serena, Osaka or some of the other top players.

Great to see. I hear Raducanu is becoming a bit of a media darling in the UK - talent, brains, charm and looks in bucketloads.

May the best player win. Incredible achievements by both.

I’m not much of a tennis fan but I’ll try to watch this

I'm rarely genuinely excited about a tennis match, but I am this one. It's great to see talent come in and upset the established order. It always was the case, but this time, two unknowns make the final together.

And both were still high schoolers until a few months ago, with Raducanu having barely played for 18 months.

Between Raducanu's Chinese mother and Fernandez's Filipina mother, they make one whole Asian

They're both favorites of the crowd - gonna be interesting to see how the crowd cheers in their match against each other

This is the first final in the Open era between unseeded players

When watching these two, there's a feeling that they're having fun. There's a spark and a smile that I don't see from Serena, Osaka or some of the other top players.

It's the same for all players when they first start - young players don't yet feel the weight of expectations

It's not until afterwards when people expect them as veterans to win more when they feel it

We'll see what happens next. Typically, young players struggle with consistency - they can do well in one tournament, then go out early in the next 2 tournaments

Pukey, apparently she speaks both Romanian and Mandarin, and she often visits her grandmother in Romania, so I assume her Romanian is fluent

To all the usual whiners ....

She is culturally and socially way more British than people like ...

It seems to be you who is raising the issue of degrees of nationality. I think on this site in particular, there will be many who themselves or their kids are of mixed parentage and who have lived in more than one country and to whom the idea of "one's country" is somewhat non-singular. It's the tennis federation that requires players to put a flag next to their name. I'd prefer to see a zodiac sign or junishi mark or just a picture of their favorite food. In this case, both players are year of the horse. Raducanu is a Scorpio while Fernandez is a Virgo. Both are brilliant.

What a cool thing to happen. On the men's side we have established superstars whose matches between each other are must-see drama fests. And now on the women's side we have a match up of young unknowns, also a must-see drama fest. Love this sport!

When I quickly glanced at the picture I thought Osaka returned, but went back and read the article. Pretty cool players.

How good are they. The only down side is that one of them will have to lose.

Again ?? - Perhaps another ‘backhanded’ comment that people of color “all look alike” ?? -

- “When I quickly glanced at the picture I thought Osaka returned, but went back and read the article.” -

Perhaps trying, at least, to read the photo captions first? Then, ‘leveling up’ by working ion reading the entire article?

Raducanu is her own person and doesn’t need such comparisons.

How come there are no captions under the string of images and the first one? I will try a different browser. I like researching the photographers.

Great photos of these players. And no racket trashing says a lot for their dignity.

Great young players who seem to be genuinely enjoying what they're doing. I hope the loser takes it easy too, especially as both will get big endorsement deals and have already achieved a lot. There's a lot of hard work, sweat, amazing mental and physical vitality and tons of luck on display. But they will become very rich forever. People like to see athletes enjoying their talents - especially as they do get to be immediately wealthy. These two seem to delight in the game and they've spread some cheer.

If you do an image search on Google for both of these amazing young players you will find them smiling in at least two thirds of their images, let's hope it stays that way.

Feels good to see a new batch of athletes who seems to understand the demands and responsibilities of being a top notch sports personality. No BS on this and that.... just play the game!

Age is just a number for the mature and supremely talented youngsters Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez. Well played. All the best in the summit clash.

snowymountainhell:

Again ?? - Perhaps another ‘backhanded’ comment that people of color “all look alike” ?? -

- “When I quickly glanced at the picture I thought Osaka returned, but went back and read the article.” -

Perhaps trying, at least, to read the photo captions first? Then, ‘leveling up’ by working ion reading the entire article?

Raducanu is her own person and doesn’t need such comparisons.

Perhaps it's YOU who needs to read photo captions first. I personally didn't read the captions - I just looked at the photos and there is not one single photo of Raducanu. They were all either Fernandez or her SF opponent, Sabalenka.

Now, who's confusing one tennis player with another?

I was just listening to one of the interviews, either with Radders or Fernandez, can't remember which, but the reporter was Japanese, and she just HAD to mention Osaka. She asked them about young tennis players with Asian parents. Look, Osaka is out of the picture. Can Japanese reporters and media just concentrate on sports instead of always trying to relate everything to Japan?