Emma Raducanu can be in the world's top five women's tennis players in next two years, says Mats Wilander

ByEurosport

Updated 09/09/2021 at 23:29 GMT

Emma Raducanu has stunned the women's tennis world by battling through qualifying to reach the semi-finals of the US Open without dropping a set at just 18 years of age. After beating Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the quarter-finals, Raducanu will already go into the top 50 in the world and be ranked as Britain's number one once the Grand Slam in Flushing Meadows has concluded.

Mats Wilander believes Emma Raducanu can be one of the top five players in women's tennis in the next two years.

Raducanu, who reached the fourth round of Wimbledon in her debut Slam earlier this summer before pulling out through illness, has a real opportunity to progress to the US Open final when she takes on Greek number 17 seed Maria Sakkari on Thursday evening.

After Raducanu's emphatic straight sets win over Belinda Bencic, Eurosport's Wilander believes Raducanu has all the tools in her game to quickly become one of the best players in the world, labelling her "real deal".

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"She got off to a pretty bad start [against Bencic]," he said.

"She went down 3-1 and then she just turned it around like it was the most natural thing ever.

"She looked lost in the beginning, she didn't feel the ball, especially on the forehand side, and then suddenly she plays like she's done it a million times. To close it out in the end as well...

She's the real deal at 18-years old and I cannot imagine Emma Raducanu not being among the top five players within a couple of years.

As well as being impressed by her technical prowess, Wilander has been struck by Raducanu's mental strength at such a young age as well as her ability to enjoy herself at the same time.

'I have a hard time finding a weakness in her game' - Wilander on Raducanu run

• 'My flights were booked at the end of qualifying' - Raducanu
• Raducanu stuns Bencic to reach semi-finals

He added: "She's only 18-years old and coming from Great Britain there's a lot of pressure with what happened with her at Wimbledon. She played great but couldn't finish that last match.

"I'm so happy because during Wimbledon I was telling everybody that Emma is the real deal.

"She moves well and now she's proving to everybody that sometimes we actually know what we're talking about!

"She doesn't get fazed by anything and she's having fun. She's clearly enjoying it which is amazing."

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