The tragic downfall of Emma Raducanu, winner of the 2021 US Open

While in men's tennis, the players at the top of the world rankings are often the same, in women's tennis, there is much more turnover.

The hegemony of the WTA Tour is often in a state of flux, with many different Grand Slam winners, without necessarily securing themselves a bright future among the world's top players.

Some players managed to create a buzz at a tournament, without ever returning to the limelight afterward. Emma Raducanu is one such example.

The young Briton is only 21 years old, and yet there is already this feeling that she has disappeared, despite the fact that she has amazed tennis fans from the start of her career.

In 2021, having only just started her professional career and having won very little, Raducanu achieved the unthinkable.

In her very first main draw at a Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon, the young Briton, then aged 18, caused a bit of a stir by reaching the last 16.

Ranked world No. 338 at the time, Raducanu became only the fourth British player to reach this stage of the competition at Wimbledon.

It was a brilliant first success that allowed her to show the whole world her qualities and, above all, gave her future opponents something to be wary of.

In her very first US Open, Raducanu produced one of the greatest performances in the history of tennis and sport in general.

She made it all the way to the final and went on to win the tournament as a qualifier, a first in the history of both men's and women's tennis.

Raducanu accomplished this by not dropping a set throughout, becoming the first British woman to win a Grand Slam tournament since Virginia Wade in 1977.

It was an incredible tournament that catapulted Raducanu to the forefront of world tennis, and she attracted a huge number of sponsors thanks to her marketable looks and unique backstory.

But while it was thought that there might be some continuity in the young player's career, this proved more difficult than expected.

During the 2022 season, her results were far from exceptional, quite the opposite in fact, as she never advanced past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament.

Eliminated in the first round of the US Open, Raducanu dropped from world No. 11 to 83. She ended her season due to a right wrist injury.

Raducanu failed to achieve any significant results at the start of the 2023 season, only reaching the last 16 at Indian Wells. In May, she announced that she was having surgery on her hands and ankle, announcing her withdrawal from the French Open and Wimbledon.

Thrust into the limelight very quickly, Raducanu was thrown into the deep end of the world tennis elite very quickly, without having gone through every stage necessary for a player's development, which certainly did her no favours in staying at the highest level.

As a result of her injuries, she finished 2023 world No. 285. She then failed to make an impact at the 2024 Australian Open, where she was eliminated in the second round.

At just 21 years of age, however, Raducanu has plenty of time ahead of her to finally get used to the highest level, having shown that she has what it takes. All she needs to do now is embrace her status, so that she can win again at the biggest tournaments.