Emma Raducanu is one of tennis’ most polarising figures, having shot to stardom in 2021.
Despite entering the US Open that year as a qualifier, and therefore unseeded, she won a stunning ten straight matches to storm to the title against all the odds.
It remains one of the sport’s most mesmerising stories, however the years that have followed have been far from the fairytale that Emma Raducanu would have imagined.
Relentless injuries and constant scrutiny have made any progress tough to come by, and only in 2025 has she found consistency in her form and fitness for the first time since that US Open triumph.
However, despite all the deserved fanfare that came with her title charge, she was not the first unseeded woman to win the event.
The WTA star who was the first unseeded woman to win the US Open
Kim Clijsters was the tennis prodigy. From a young age, it was abundantly clear that she was destined to do great things within this sport.
2003 marked the pinnacle of that potential, as she competed in 21 tournaments across the year, reaching at least the semi-finals in all but one of them.
Her record of 90–12 was exceptional, and despite failing to win a Grand Slam, the Belgian still rose to claim the world number one spot. She would later snag her first major in New York in 2005.
However, retirement loomed for the injury-prone star, who took a two-year hiatus in 2007, and looked set to be forgotten as the years went by.
Clijsters ensured that would not be the case on her comeback, despite needing wildcards to enter Cincinnati, the Canadian Open and the US Open.
Due to having failed to feature in three tour-level events, she headed into the latter unseeded and thus unfavoured.
However, she shocked the world as she notably dumped out both Venus and Serena Williams on her way to the final, where she then beat Caroline Wozniacki to become the first unseeded woman to ever win the US Open.
There is hope that the aforementioned Brit, who followed in Clijsters’ US Open footsteps just four years ago, can enjoy a similarly stunning comeback one day. Raducanu’s relationship with her new coach has been praised thus far, with plenty of positive signs already visible.
Why Kim Clijsters retired from tennis so early
2007 did not mark the only retirement of Clijsters’ career, as she would also make that announcement two more times, with the latter naturally being her official permanent departure from the sport.
Her first hiatus from tennis came down to her desire to start a family, as well as unrelenting injury issues, which forced her hand.
Clijsters’ 2012 retirement was unsurprisingly provoked by similar issues, with both her hip and ankle troubling her throughout that year.
In the end, it proved too much, and this particular decision seemed far more permanent, given it would take nearly eight years before she returned.
2020 then marked her final comeback, but it was short-lived due to the pandemic. In 2022, she announced her definitive retirement, citing a desire to focus more on family life.
