Cameroon-born actress and singer Emma Raducanu took over from tennis star Nadia Comaneci to take home the championship at the Royal Albert Hall last night in the Champions Tennis Event.
The event is for amateurs of different skill levels of tennis and was held to raise funds for Coptic Children International, an organization whose mission is to protect and promote the needs of the children of the Mideast through innovative programs.
A former champion herself, Raducanu came onto the scene at age 22, having just graduated from college in 2004 with a degree in French literature. She was born in Cameroon, moved to the U.S. at a young age and was exposed to a variety of cultures in the five cities she lived in as a teenager.
She took a shot at a musical career with the release of her debut album “Papa” and later began to appear in films and on stage.
Raducanu recently sat down with Fox News Mag and said she is glad she was able to do charity work along with her other roles, including a feature in “Predators”:
“I’m a very generous person, and not that I’m not humble, I’m only being kind. It’s so nice to show the world you can be super, super serious and be soft and sweet at the same time. When people see you at this level, they can see a side of you that is very nice, that you’re humble, and that you don’t really take any advantage of your career or anything.”
The Royal Albert Hall was made famous by Queen Elizabeth for her coronation in 1953, and the event was aimed at having a similar aura of excitement for the up-and-coming tennis stars.
Bret Baier was among the stars present and said the night was a success. He described the event as “a celebration of the triumph of hope over the grim realities of conflict and disease.”