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Her approach on the volleys is excellent. She will nonetheless work extra on the transition recreation, turning into extra proactive in coming to the web, however she redirects the ball rather well from the again of the court docket – definitely higher than Maria Sakkari did on Friday. Her tennis IQ actually got here by in that semi-final. There is no such thing as a sense that she is doing issues by rote – pondering “My coach instructed me to hit 30 forehands down the road.” She reads the sport so naturally and nearly all the time chooses the correct shot.
It seems like each the finalists have been bred for this, so it’s going to be fascinating to see how they react on the night time. I don’t assume there must be a lot stress once they each know that they’ve 10, 15 and even 20 years {of professional} tennis forward of them. The semi-final is generally the hardest match mentally, since you need to attain that large stage. Now they’ve handed that check, it’s nearly placing their recreation on the court docket. The gang might be 50-50, I count on.
Leylah has extra selection proper now, and extra expertise. However Emma has proven that she is a winner from the get-go. Usually it takes folks rather a lot longer to succeed in that 80pc match-winning ratio which is the mark of a very prime participant.
Emma has just a little extra energy, larger weapons and a much bigger serve. It will likely be attention-grabbing how she handles Fernandez’ lefty serve. She took away Sakkari’s slice serve by shifting over to the correct, so I count on she’s going to transfer to the left for a similar motive within the ultimate. The backhand is her higher return anyway. It will likely be a recreation of cat and mouse.
The age hole may appear small to us, however a yr is a giant deal once you’re a youngster. I all the time felt extra stress after I was taking part in somebody youthful than me, so which may work in Emma’s favour just a little bit.
No matter occurs right here, historical past means that these are two future champions. We had a glance again by the information and located 20 youngsters who’ve reached the US Open semi-finals within the final 40 years. It was folks like Chris Evert, Jennifer Capriati, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, the Williams sisters and myself. I believe all however 4 of us went on to win majors, and a type of was Elena Dementieva, who received the Olympics.
Based mostly on that proof, Raducanu v Fernandez seems like the primary assembly in an extended and engaging rivalry. In the event that they keep wholesome, they’re going to be seeing numerous one another on the court docket.
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