Good evening and welcome to our live coverage of The Big One: Britain's Emma Raducanu takes on Leylah Fernandez in the FINAL of the 2021 US Open and it could hardly be more exciting...

Raducanu will serve first.

Here they come! Emma is first on to court and there are huge cheers to greet the Brit.

And now it's Leylah's turn. What an occasion for these two teen queens. Time for the pre-match routines - and then it's down to business.

Pre-match focus. The players are moments from taking to court. How's your nerve?

Almost time.

DID YOU KNOW? Raducanu could become the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title in 44 years. Indeed, she would be GB’s first female Grand Slam singles champion since Virginia Wade's success in 1977 at Wimbledon.

Anyone rocking up to witness this match who hasn’t been watching closely for the past fortnight should not think Raducanu is going to have it all her own way again. The 18-year-old has yet to drop a set in the tournament but her opponent has taken down some seriously big names. Fernandez shocked defending champion Naomi Osaka, Olympic Bronze medallist Elina Svitolina, three-time major winner Angie Kerber and world number two Aryna Sabalenka en route to this final. 

Fernandez: “I think we're all just super hungry to make a difference in the tennis world. We've always talked about and joked around that we're going to be in the WTA Tour and we're going to be on the big stage together. We want to make a difference. We want to make an impact in tennis."

Raducanu: “I was born in Toronto and she was Canadian, so we kind of, like, made a little relationship back then. Then I played her at junior Wimbledon. Obviously since then, we've both come very far in our games and as people.”

H2H: It's perhaps no surprise to note that this is their first official WTA meeting. They first encountered each other at an U12 tournament and also played a junior match at the aforementioned Wimbledon tournament which Raducanu won 6-2 6-4. 

Raducanu and Fernandez faced off in junior Wimbledon in 2018, now they meet in the US Open final. James Walker-Roberts has tracked their remarkable journey to the top of the game...

We're under an hour away now from the players walking out in Arthur Ashe Stadium! If you didn't know, the pair played each other at Junior Wimbledon not too long ago...

Britain is already celebrating at Flushing Meadows: Joe Salisbury has just followed his men's doubles title with the mixed doubles title!

Eurosport's Mats Wilander believes Raducanu will go all the way. "To me, Emma Raducanu is the favourite. Because she is more solid from the baseline. She moves better than Leylah Fernandez. I think the crowd will be for the Canadian, for sure, and they want to see a good match. It's going to be tough, but Fernandez at some point, you would think, will run out of energy. Raducanu is a superstar in the making and she will most probably win her first major on Saturday."

Sixteen sets without a hiccup. The first qualifier, woman or man, to reach a Grand Slam final. The first British woman to reach the US Open final in 52 years. Emma Raducanu is the biggest draw in tennis right now and has all the ingredients to be Britain’s headline act in the sport for years to come. Ben Snowball on Raducanu taking the British baton from Murray...

Dominic Thiem, the reigning men's champion in New York, has given his thoughts about the women's final while away from the action recovering due to treatment on a persistent wrist injury. He has described it as "a dream final" - and no one is really going to disagree with that here.

We have tons of preview content to feed your appetite before the big match gets going later on. The players are expected out at Arthur Ashe Stadium around 21:00 UK time. First up, take a watch of Eurosport expert Mats Wilander's verdict ahead of the final.