Emma Raducanu’s tennis racket slices through the air to the approving coos of spectators, as dust rises from where her feet have gracefully landed on the ground. From underneath her cap, she stares straight ahead, focused, serious. Then the camera clicks and the 18-year-old from Kent breaks into a wide, toothy grin. the young tennis star who, this summer, appeared as if from nowhere to become the nation’s most exciting player in a decade – is in a north London studio being photographed for Vogue, offering the assorted collection of delighted onlookers (stylist, make-up artist, assistants) a tiny snapshot of the talent that helped make her the first debuting British woman in 42 years to get to the fourth round of Wimbledon.
