Emma Raducanu

Emma Raducanu authored the most improbable major run the sport has seen, and four years on she's still trying to build a career to match the fairy tale. Born in Toronto to a Romanian father and Chinese mother, raised in Bromley from age two, she came through the British junior and ITF circuits before a Wimbledon wildcard run in 2021 — a fourth-round breakthrough — first announced her. Two months later, ranked 150th, she swept three qualifying rounds and seven main-draw matches at the US Open without dropping a set, the first qualifier ever to win a Grand Slam singles title. It remains her only WTA Tour title.

Raducanu is a clean, flat-hitting baseliner who takes the ball early and redirects pace down the line off both wings. At her best the timing is exceptional — she absorbs and returns power as well as anyone, which is why her game travels onto faster hard courts. The serve and the margins are the swing factors: when the first-serve percentage holds and the unforced errors stay in check, she can trade with the top of the draw. The questions have always been physical durability and consistency across a full season rather than ceiling.

The post-New York years brought a churn of coaches, wrist and ankle surgeries in 2023, and a long climb back up the rankings rather than a linear rise. She's remained Britain's marquee draw throughout, and the flashes — pushing the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek deep — keep the upside legible even when results don't follow.

Currently ranked 42, Raducanu is chasing the steady stretch of form that converts the talent into seeding. The hard-court swing through Indian Wells and the Miami Open, surfaces that suit her flat, early-strike game, is where she's most dangerous.