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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]I’m still in disbelief that they both did it. Either one of the paths to Saturday’s final would’ve been the sole miraculous story line of the US Open; the fact that both played out simultaneously feels like nothing short of a viral marketing stunt. One can only assume this stunt was intended to get teens into watching tennis, and/or heroically winning its biggest titles. Leylah Fernandez and Emma Raducanu, who at the outset of this Open were both 18 years old and ranked No. 73 and No. 150 in the world, respectively, will now meet in the final. Even as I am still figuring out all the nuances of how they play—even as they figure out, in real time, how they play when matched up against the best players alive, as Raducanu told the press—they’re already going to fight over the biggest title left in 2021. Partially this is pandemic weirdness, which interrupted both players’ segue into the pro game in different ways, but it now appears as though two fully formed champs have been plopped right at the top of the women’s game. Over these two weeks they’ve even developed their own distinctive styles of victory—Raducanu in crushing straight sets, Fernandez in a three-set war—which persisted in Thursday’s semifinals.