every time i see that stadium it looks awesome, don;t think i will ever get used to it

Correct mes, no pressure.

She's already banked £1/2m so I'm sure she'll be pretty relaxed.

Fantastic effort from young Emma. Into the US Open Final in her teens without dropping a set.

As I've said before, this girl is the real deal.

Mentally she is ice cool.

according to skybet the two players have never met before ......not so, emma beat her at  2018 junior wimbledon 2nd round . went on to be beaten in the final by swiatek.

People were saying the same things about Osaka, Andreescu and Swiatek after they won their first majors, not after they won a QF or SF, and they were wrong.

Leylah has had the more impressive run to the final though in my opinion

The number 2, 3, 5 and 16 seeds beaten by Fernandez

Raducanu hasn't beaten a top 10 seed en route

One of the advantages Fernandez has apart from being the new kid of the block who’s game is not that well known, same as Raducanu, is that she’s a lefty. You hardly play lefties during the season as there’s only 8 of them in the top 100 atm, you’ll play a long succession of matches against right handed players and all of a sudden you have to change your thinking patterns and tactics for a left hander, even for lefties playing lefties it’s difficult because then they have to change as well as they’re used to playing righties, I remember Muller driving Nadal to drink at Wimbledon 4 or 5 years ago with these incessant big side spin serves to his forehand in the ad serving box when he’s more used to returning serves to the T with his back hand there, though in general easier for Nadal to deal with them as there’s almost twice as many lefties in the top 100 than in the WTA. The other issue is that it’s also difficult to find left handed players to practice returning serves with because there are so few of them.

Looking at her opponents before she played them, Sabalenka had only played 2 lefties this year and 55 right handed players, Svitolina 7 v lefties and 46 v Right (lost her last 3 v lefties, now 4), Kerber 31R v 7L (she’s left), Osaka 19 right, 4 left (had lost v 2 of them now 3 from 5) , Kanepi 25 v right, 2 v left and Konjuh 53 v right, 3 v left.   

Raducanu’s played 21 right handed players at all levels in 2021 and 6 lefties, she beat all 6 of them including Vondrousov,, contrast that to to Fernandez who’s played 37 matches v right handed players in 2021 and only 4 v lefties, when you add that to the relatively quick feet she has you can see why her opponents were made to feel uncomfortable making UE’s they shouldn’t, or forced unforced errors, like Svitolina’s backhand breaking down trying to deal with the cross court forehands that come with speed greater than the double backhands she’s used to.

This stuff interests me because I think it counts, it’s a small advantage for Fernandez still even if she’s had some help with players like Sabalenka beating herself going from hitting 9 winners/0 UE to lead 3-0 to making double faults and missing simple overheads

Emma has the fitness edge, even though she’s played 3 more matches having come through qualifying she’s played 33 games less.

The quality of Fernandez’a opponents have been higher than Raducanu’s but the quality of Raducanu’s play has been higher, I think she’s going to win, assuming she doesn’t melt which based on last night, she wont.

Also, make no mistake about it, if every player on tour played to their absolute best, then Halep is the best all round player when fit and Osaka is the most naturally gifted player and by far and away the best on hard courts, Andreescu should be world number 1 at some point and should have been already if not for injuries and lockdowns, they are 3 biggest talents. Whoever wins this slam is unlikely to win the next because that's just the way the WTA rolls, there's nobody who can dominate at the minute either because of injuries, mental problems (Naomi) or not being the level of a Serena, Graf or Henin. The grind of the tour will hit both Raducanu and Fernandez eventually and only then will you know their true level, you often get quick rises before plateauing or even regressing such as Bouchard, Ivanovic, Jankovic, Penko, Stephens or fluctuators like Kuznetsova, but Emma easily has the ability to be top 10 consistently whatever happens on Saturday night. The only down side is that the LTA and their 6 figure salary chiefs will probably hide behind her success to cover up all the dross they're produced over the years despite LTA being one of the wealthiest tennis organisations in the world, good luck Emma

there’s almost twice as many lefties in the top 100 than in the WTA

is this because of right handed male players choosing to play left handed?

Fernandez now 27 in the live rankings. Radu 32.

Will be 19 and 21 whoever wins the final. More or less level with Gauff and Andreescu.

Raducanu hasn't even played a match on clay. Not sure she did at Junior level either. Bit premature to be talking about her dominating.

That's because they've played on it as juniors. Osaka didn't play juniors. Most people struggle on grass because they don't play on it very often. Same with clay for Raducanu if she hasn't played on it.

Clay is like the fibresand at Southwell, a specialist surface in my opinion

I actually like watching clay matches, who remembers Guilermo Coria? the one touted to dominate clay before Nadal turned up

mesmerised 15.40 post . excellent .

in the men's game, clay generally poses more of a problem for players who are not used to it. you can see this by the list of winners of roland garros and wimbledon. RG was (before Nadal) often won by players who wouldn;t win on hard courts or grass.

in the women's game the different surfaces have less significance because they don;t hit the ball as hard. so the different raections of the ball on teh different surfaces are not as pronounced.

I think the bookmakers have got this wrong by making Emma big favourite @ 8/15, Leylah on the other hand has beaten 4 top players Osaka, Kerber, Svitolina, Sabalenka. Question is why is Emma big odds on???

This match should have been 5/6 each. Here they go to the finals of a grand slam for their first time, nerves will be there. I put my money on Leylah Fernandez worth losing then backing a wild card Emma. But may they best girl win.

bookmakers are not deciding the current or starting odds per se are they, money in Asian, Australian, European and American markets that we can't bet on but overseas punters can, have the the same or similar odds to your local bookie, she is the better player

We'll see but I doubt Emma will beat herself like Svitolina & Sababot did.

Osaka talks tooooo much about her mental health which gives anyone who plays her belief.

I've gone for both of them to be broken in their first game. 6/1 seems value.

I feel robbed. Breaks of serve in games 2 and 3.

So close, but no cigar

100% BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2021