The US Open tennis tournament served up startling wins this year, with the women’s singles winner being 18-year-old Emma Raducanu of Great Britain and the men’s singles winner being 25-year-old Daniil Medvedev of Russia.

   This is significant for both sides of the singles tournament due to the fight both players had to undertake to win these titles. Ordinarily, it is extremely difficult to win the US Open, but this year was especially incredible for both Raducanu and Medvedev.

   The women’s singles final match was of great historical significance, being that it was the first all-teen final since 1999. 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada was Raducanu’s opponent in this match, and she fought long and hard to get there, as well. Fernandez defeated the women’s singles players ranked No. 2, No. 3, No. 5, and No. 16 to see Emma Raducanu in the final.

   Before this, Fernandez had never made it past the third round of a Major, and only had 6 Major appearances to her name. Raducanu had only played one Major tournament before: Wimbledon, where she lost in the Round of 16 to Ajla Tomljanović.

   Emma Raducanu fought through the US Open qualifiers to reach the first round of the US Open, and claimed that she had been cancelling and rebooking her plane ticket every day since. She never dreamed she would make it to the first round, much less the final match.   

   Going into the US Open, she was seeded 31^st in the qualifiers. Making it into the tournament was a huge deal for a seed so low. She continued to win, though, and broke records every step of the way.

   When she made it into the semifinal against Greek player Maria Sakkari (ranked 17 in the world for women’s singles), she became the first qualifier to reach that stage in the US Open. When she made it into the final, she became the first qualifier to ever reach that stage in an Major tennis tournament in the Open Era (since 1968). When she won the US Open, she became the first qualifier to ever win a Major in the history of tennis. And she did it all without dropping a set.

   This also marks the first time a woman from Great Britain has won a Major title since Virginia Wade in 1977.

   During her on-court interview after the final, Raducanu thanked Fernandez for a great match and told her: “I hope that we play each other in many more tournaments and hopefully finals.”

   Everyone watching the tournament knows that the young girls will likely have their careers intertwined for a very long time, especially with this historic match under their belts.

   The men’s singles tournament was no less exciting, though admittedly for very different reasons.

   Daniil Medvedev went up against the reigning No. 1 men’s singles player in the world, Novak Djokovic. Not only that, but Djokovic had already won the first three Major titles of the year in men’s singles, putting him on track for a Calendar Grand Slam.

   A Calendar Grand Slam happens when a player wins all 4 of the Major tennis titles in a calendar year, starting with the Australian Open in January and ending with the US Open in August. Calendar Grand Slams are exceedingly difficult to obtain, with only five people ever achieving it in singles before.

   Djokovic was the clear favorite to win this match, but it seems as though that was not meant to be. He played nervously, and in the end was bested by Medvedev.

   He did not achieve the Calendar Grand Slam, however, placing at all of the Major tournaments in a year is still exceptionally good.

   This tournaments speaks highly for the future of tennis, and shows fans that there will be plenty of exciting matches to come, both from rising stars and returning champions.