Talented teens steal show at Flushing Meadows

THIS year's US Open tennis tournament made headlines even before the first hit of the ball as one big name after another pulled out of the Grand Slam in New York.

Former winners Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem and Serena Williams were among the heavyweights who withdrew in the lead-up, which left the competition shorn of its top superstars. The likes of Ashleigh Barty, Naomi Osaka and Stefanos Tsitsipas all exited the tournament in the first week, which removed even more stardust from the year's final Major.

In a way, those absentees resulted in much of the spotlight falling on the sport's rising talents instead, most notably three high-flying teenagers - Canada's Leylah Fernandez, Britain's Emma Raducanu and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz - who have claimed one scalp after another over the past two weeks to announce their arrival on one of tennis' grandest stages.

Fernandez and Raducanu will contest the US Open final on Saturday night (Sunday 4am, Singapore time), in what will be the first time two teenagers have featured in the tournament's championship match since 1999.

Canadian ingenue

What a fortnight it's been for Leylah Fernandez, who only turned 19 only on Monday and three days later booked her place in the final by winning a fourth straight three-setter over a seeded opponent.

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First it was last year's winner Naomi Osaka, followed by former world No 1 Angelique Kerber. Fernandez knocked out two more big favourites - the 2018 WTA Finals champion Elina Svitolina and second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka - to deservedly earn her spot in the title showdown at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Born in Montreal to an Ecuadorean father and a Filipino-Canadian mother, the affable Fernandez has won over the New York crowd with her tenacity, poise, quickness and athleticism.

She fights for every ball and has displayed no fear when squaring off against opponents ranked much higher than her and with dozens of accolades to their name. The left-hander may be a petite 1.65m in height, but she's proven that she can more than hold her own against the biggest names on the court.

"There's no limit to what I can do. I'm just glad that right now everything's going well," said Fernandez, who could give Canada its second US Open women's title in three seasons, following Bianca Andreescu's breakthrough in 2019.

British sensation

Emma Raducanu can scarcely believe how her 2021 season has panned out. The 18-year-old from the town of Bromley in South London burst on the tennis scene at Wimbledon where, as a player ranked 338th at the time, she reached the fourth round by defeating three of the world's top players to become an overnight sensation.

In New York, the very likeable Raducanu - now ranked 150th - defied the odds to become the first qualifier, male or female, to reach the final of a Grand Slam. Among those she's ousted along the way were Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Belinda Bencic.

The daughter of a Romanian father and a Chinese mother, Raducanu started playing tennis when she was five, three years after she moved to London from Toronto. The full-time student puts in three to four hours of training on the court every day, followed by a gym session.

She's level-headed, confident and plays an aggressive game that her more experienced opponents have struggled to keep pace with. Now that she's stamped her mark as the undisputed British No 1, some have already tipped her to become a future World No 1. That may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

The next Rafa

Carlos Alcaraz, an 18-year-old Spaniard, became the youngest US Open men's quarter-finalist in the Open era, with his most impressive win being in the third round when he defeated third-seed Tsitsipas in a classic five-setter.

While his Flushing Meadows fairytale came to an end in the last eight after he retired in the second set against Felix Auger-Aliassime, this is only the beginning for a promising teenager with all the attributes to go far in the sport.

Alcaraz has a big burden to deal with in being saddled with the nickname "The Next Rafa", a reference to his compatriot and 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal. He, however, has made it clear that he does not want to entertain such talk during his media interviews as he wants to establish his own identity.

Now ranked 55th and sure to soar much higher once the standings are updated next week, Alcaraz - who started playing tennis at the age of four - is eager to show he is no flash in the pan. He's already won one Tour title - the Croatian Open in July - and also made it to the third round of the French Open.

Perhaps the greatest endorsement of his ability came from Nadal himself earlier this year after they squared off at the Madrid Open. Nadal said after beating Alcaraz in the second round: "When you make a salad and you are putting ingredients inside the salad, he has plenty of the ingredients to become a great player. Being one of the best players in the world and fighting for the most important titles is something very difficult, but I really believe that he's one of the guys that can do it."