Tennis star heralds calmness and mental strength instilled in her by her parents
Nothing about what Emma Raducanu has achieved over the past three weeks in New York is normal. Qualifiers do not win Grand Slam titles; 18-year-olds do not win slams without dropping a set; teenagers do not waltz to US Open triumph on their debut.
But as she showed in 10 glorious performances, in heat, humidity and wind, Raducanu is not a normal teenager. In three months, she has gone from being a student waiting for her A-level results to reaching the last 16 at Wimbledon and then, in unprecedented fashion, to winning 10 straight matches to first qualify for the main draw at the US Open and then go all the way to the title to become the first British woman to win a Grand Slam since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.
