“It’s given me inner strength,” she told Vogue in this month’s issue. But sport and “having to be bold on court” taught her to be more fearless and outgoing. She was born in Toronto in November 2002 before moving to London two years later - the Canadian city is still listed as one of four cities in her Twitter bio, alongside London, Bucharest and Shenyang.Īccording to the tennis star herself, she was “a shy little girl who didn’t talk much at all” growing up. Her father, Ian, might be from Romania and her mother, Renee, might be Chinese, but Raducanu has Canadian heritage too. She has been called an “inspiration”, a “celestial talent”, and celebrity PR gurus are already tipping her to be Britain’s first billion-dollar sports star.īut what else do we know about tennis’ new golden girl? From famous friends to her surprising hobbies, these are 10 things you probably didn’t know about this year’s worthy Spoty winner. Naturally, the headlines over recent months have painted the picture of a remarkable young sporting star who is destined for greatness. “I’m happy for British tennis as well, and that we’ve managed to get this award.again!” “I’m really happy with this, I’ve watched Sports Personality of the Year growing up and it’s an honour to be among those past winners,” she said, holding the award up for the camera. Since then she’s said she wants to frame the Queen’s letter, remained charmingly humble about her £1.8 million prize money (“I have been telling myself before each match: ‘If you win, you can buy yourself another pair of AirPods’.”) and gave a XXX speech from her quarantine hotel room at last night’s BBC Spoty awards ceremony. “No! What? It’s changed to an M now, not a K!” she told reporters following the US Open on noticing her Instagram following had skyrocketed.
![no image in boris graffiti composite window no image in boris graffiti composite window](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ORgAAOSwwBZdeZ1p/s-l300.jpg)
![no image in boris graffiti composite window no image in boris graffiti composite window](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iwxgD9x4zGbiUmSZ65n9vQ.jpg)
Not bad for an A-Level student fresh from her sixth form prom and rated as a 400-1 outsider in the tennis rankings before this summer.īut Britain’s new tennis darling hasn’t let her extraordinary victory go to her head. Since beating 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez in the final in September, the teenager from Bromley has overtaken Johanna Konta as British number one and broken records as the youngest woman to win a Grand Slam since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 at 17, and - more impressively - the first player to break through three qualifying rounds of a grand slam before winning the entire tournament - without losing a single set. Raducanu’s performance at the US Open this summer made history. Now, the 18-year-old tennis champion has just been crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year - and no wonder.
![no image in boris graffiti composite window no image in boris graffiti composite window](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NINTCHDBPICT000658007730-2.jpg)
Six months ago you’d never heard of Emma Raducanu.