Her triumph was a milestone in the history of women’s tennis. A sensational run of victories in New York in the summer of 2021 had made her the first ever qualifier to win a Grand Slam. Now the 19-year-old Briton will be one of the faces of Porsche in women’s tennis and represent the sports car manufacturer worldwide in the future as a Brand Ambassador.
New York, 11 September 2021, Arthur Ashe Stadium: two teenagers – Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez – are standing in the final of the US Open. It was something the tennis world last experienced in 1999 when Serena Williams secured the last Grand Slam title of the year by beating Martina Hingis. On the road to her sensational victory, Emma Raducanu, only 18-years old like her opponent, ousted Belinda Bencic in the quarterfinals and Maria Sakkari in the penultimate round – both were Top 20 players at the time. And the Briton was also highly impressive when winning the final. In a match lasting 1 hour 51 minutes, she converted her third match point with an ace. She did not lose a single set in the whole tournament, from qualifying to the final.
“I have no doubt your outstanding performance will inspire the next generation of tennis players,” wrote the Queen when congratulating her in the night. The great Martina Navratilova tweeted: “A star is born.”
Practice in school uniform
The first British woman to win a Grand Slam since Virginia Wade in 1977 was born in Toronto, Canada on 13 November 2002. Aged two, she moved with her parents – her father comes from Romania, her mother from China – to London where she took up tennis at the age of five in the borough of Bromley. She was allowed to compete in U-18 ITF tournaments after turning 13, and promptly won the Nike Junior International in Liverpool just eight days later. She was therefore the youngest tournament winner in ITF history. Her parents, both work in the financial sector, attached great importance to a good school education right from the start. Emma therefore practiced before going to school in her uniform and late on in the afternoon, also in winter when it was cold in England and got dark early. The floodlights did not always work.
“The dreams that kept me going back then were to win Grand Slams and to play at Wimbledon,” she relates. As the world No. 338 in 2021, she went all the way to the last 16 at Wimbledon after being given a wild card. Just previously, she had passed her A-Level exams at the Newstead Wood School with top grades in maths and economics. She then fulfilled her dreams by sensationally winning the US Open. “I feel very proud of myself,” she says, “But I’m obviously setting myself new goals now. For me, it’s about continuous improvement and getting better and just trying to learn and experience new things because it’s going to be my first few proper years on the tour now.”
New generation of successful young players
Emma Raducanu stands for a new generation of successful young players on the way to the top of women’s tennis. After her gala performance at the US Open, she became the youngest woman ever to be named a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to tennis. She has been a Porsche Brand Ambassador since March 2022.
“It means a lot to me. Porsche is a brand that fascinated me as a kid,” says Emma Raducanu. “One of the fondest memories I have is one of my first tennis coaches, he drove a 911 and whenever I would turn up to practice at 7.00 am in the morning, I would see his Porsche, I’d go wow. I really like that car. I really want that car. But also it’s really important for me to align with partners and brands that I really feel passionate about and that I identify with. And I feel like that because motorsports has been a part of me. I think this partnership with Porsche is incredible and obviously I’m really excited to see what sort of exciting things we can do going forwards.”
For Oliver Blume, Emma Raducanu embodies not only a new generation of strong and self-confident players. “As a personality, she is also an inspiration and role model beyond the realms of her sport for young women all over the world,” says the Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG. “Through her own life, she exemplifies that one can achieve one’s goals if one believes in oneself and is prepared to work hard. She’s therefore an excellent fit for Porsche and the values for which the company stands.”