Emma Raducanu: Very well played - and are you free to visit Eastbourne next summer...?

Emma Raducanu with the US Open trophy - will we see her at Eastbourne international week next summer?

Well played, Emma. Thank you for captivating us and raising our spirits – oh, and would you like a wild card for the friendliest tennis tournament on the tour? It’s scheduled for next June in a small town on the south coast by the name of Eastbourne.

What a way to announce your career! The US Open is only one tennis title – albeit one of the four greatest in the world – and everything did fall into place for Emma Raducanu, from the very start of the tournament. Actually, coming through the qualifiers often gives momentum to a young hopeful tennis player. Two or three victories, against steadily tougher opponents, will build confidence ahead of the main draw.

But Raducanu seemed to have such momentum that the engravers might as well have added her name to the trophy by about the end of Week One. Yes, she was a teeny bit fortunate that her scheduled first-round opponent, the experienced Jennifer Brady, pulled out with injury. And yes, Emma next faced a pretty exhausted Shelby Rogers, after the US player’s own epic victory over Ash Barty.

From that point on, it all seemed inevitable. She closed in relentlessly on the Final – as did fellow teen Leylah Fernandez in the other half of the draw. So, having flown so high so early, where does Emma go from here?

We have seen plenty of young shooting stars in the past, who then burn out, lose form, lose momentum, fall to Earth. Remember Eugenie Bouchard, or Jelena Dokic? Jennifer Capriati? There are often proper reasons, of course. You could weep for Laura Robson, beset with injuries following her London Olympic gold medal – although Laura is now a wise and eloquent pundit – and for Monica Seles, her career shockingly ruined by a crazed knife attacker.

Every athlete, of course, is only one bad injury away from oblivion. And most players will have fitness battles to fight at some stage of a career. Interestingly one of Emma’s US Open opponents, Belinda Bencic, was a rising star in her own right – winning the Eastbourne title at only 18 in 2015. And Belinda’s mentor Martina Hingis was a dazzling youngster who later re-invented herself as an outstanding coach, and also a highly accomplished player well into her thirties.

But Emma is no one-stage rocket. She has a terrific all-court game; she looks rather slight but has not been found out for stamina; her tennis brain is quick and she is evidently a great learner; and in terms of personality she seems, well, remarkably normal.