Emma Raducanu has added another accolade after winning the US Open in September – the Order of the British Empire (MBE) – becoming the youngest female recipient of the award.
It makes me immensely proud and grateful to be listed to receive an MBE from Her Majesty the Queen. This year has been full of amazing surprises for me so to end 2021 with this appointment is very special. Emma Raducanu
The honour was bestowed by The Queen in the New Year’s list published on Friday, following the teenager’s breakthrough performance at Flushing Meadows.
Honours recognise outstanding achievements in various fields, including show business, sport and politics, as well as the contributions of people across society.
Raducanu, who became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam since Virginia Wade in 1977 and was voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, is made an MBE after a fairy-tale 2021, in which the 19-year-old stormed to victory in the US Open in New York in September.
“It makes me immensely proud and grateful to be listed to receive an MBE from Her Majesty the Queen,” said Raducanu, who did not drop a set at Flushing Meadows on her run to the title.
“This year has been full of amazing surprises for me so to end 2021 with this appointment is very special.”
It has not all been plain-sailing for the British No 1, however, who has just come out of isolation in Abu Dhabi and arrived in Australia where she has pulled out of this week’s Australian Open warm-up tournament in Melbourne.
Raducanu, who became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed at Flushing Meadows in September, was forced to pull out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi last month after contracting the virus.
The 19-year-old was scheduled to headline one of the two women’s WTA 250 warm-up tournaments taking place at Melbourne Park, dubbed the ‘Melbourne Summer Set’, from 4-9 January.
“The timing to compete in the first Melbourne event this week is too soon for me, having just returned from isolation,” Raducanu was quoted as saying by the organisers on Saturday.
The World No 19 is scheduled to compete in the Sydney Classic later this month before making her debut at the Australian Open, which runs from 17-30 January.
Emma Raducanu hits the practice court after recovering from COVID in Abu Dhabi
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