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03rd Jul 2021

18-year-old Brit Emma Raducanu reaches last 16 at Wimbledon

Charlie Herbert

She finished her A-Levels just two months ago.

Emma Raducanu has reached the fourth round of Wimbledon at the age of just 18 after beating Sorana Cirstea 6-3 7-5.

In a thrilling contest, Raducanu sealed the victory with a brilliant point to make history at Wimbledon.

Raducanu has rapidly become the fairytale story of this year’s championships. She is the only British women’s singles player left in the draw and is ranked just 338th in the world. In comparison, her first two opponents in the tournament were ranked 137th and 41st in the world, with her Romanian opponent on Saturday, Sorana Cirstea, ranked 54th.

Born in Toronto, Canada, to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother, Emma Raducanu moved to England aged two and grew up in London.

She got a wildcard into this year’s championships and has now made history in her first appearance at a Grand Slam by becoming the youngest British woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon in the Open era.

After her stunning win, she was asked how she felt about making it to the second week of the championships, replying: “It’s funny, at the beginning when I was packing to come into the bubble my parents were like ‘aren’t you packing too many sets of match kit?’

“I think I’m going to have to do some laundry tonight, but I think there’s a laundry service at the hotel so I’m all good!”

Raducanu will now face Australian player and world number 78 Ajla Tomljanović in the fourth round on Monday, and Raducanu won’t be going into the match with any fear.

She has also now pocketed a rather handy £181,000 by reaching the last 16 of the tournament. Not too bad for someone that only finished their A-Level exams a couple of months ago.