Baptism over, teen duo now have work cut out

NEW YORK • The toast of the tennis world for their mind-boggling success at the US Open, 18-year-old winner Emma Raducanu and 19-year-old runner-up Leylah Fernandez have set the sport alight with their fearless play and joie-de-vivre.

But with the Grand Slam having ended, they will now step out of their dream into the cold reality of the day-to-day grind of the WTA Tour, weighted down by expectations and obligations that were not present two weeks ago.

Many fans will expect Britain's Raducanu and Canadian Fernandez to continue to compete at the same extraordinary levels they did in New York but there are warnings of stormy waters ahead.

"Everyone is going to want them, every tournament is going to want them to play," said Ashley Keber, the Tour's vice-president of member relations, who leads a team that develops programmes and resources for players and their support staff.

Virtual unknowns when the year began, Raducanu and Fernandez are no longer anonymous faces, with the former now boasting 1.4 million followers on Instagram.

It will be a lot to digest for a tennis-loving schoolgirl who sat her A levels in June. From royalty to the prime ministers of Canada and Britain to sports stars and the famous, the world has taken notice and so has the Tour.

While the WTA has programmes in place to help players cope with the demands of the sport, Keber acknowledged Raducanu and Fernandez will require a little more diligence.

With the Serena and Venus Williams era drawing to an end, the timing of the teens' arrival is impeccable as tennis looks to fill a void with marketable, engaging personalities.

Protecting those assets from added stress will be a priority.

"It will require some extra attention," Keber said.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and on the biggest stage of sport, so for example both of these women have participated in our mentoring sessions."

One does not need to look hard to find cautionary tales.

Fernandez and Raducanu have exuded an invincible aura, but so did Naomi Osaka.

As a 20-year-old, the Japanese was anointed tennis' next big thing in 2018, earning the first of her four Grand Slam titles in the very same Arthur Ashe Stadium.

But since winning the Australian Open, the world No. 3 has struggled to deal with the crushing expectations, putting the focus on athletes' mental health.

"We have seen this before and that's where we draw our knowledge from and try to get ahead of some of these items," said Keber. "We can't predict on an individual level but we have seen some of the warning signs overall.

"Let's be honest, these are tough times, people are growing, they are going to make mistakes.

"It doesn't mean it is going to be perfect or a smooth path but how can we make it as smooth as possible."

REUTERS