Taiwanese-Belgian duo Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday advanced to the second round of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon, while British teenager Emma Raducanu continued her unlikely run in the women’s singles.
Hsieh and Mertens defeated Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 7-6, 6-2 in 1 hour, 23 minutes on Court 9 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London.
The third seeds won 72 percent of points on their first serve and converted six of 13 break points to advance to a second-round match against Misaki Doi of Japan and Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.
Photo:AFP
In the singles, Raducanu, basking in the limelight of her unlikely run, would prefer to reach the fourth round rather than receive top grades in her school exams.
The 18-year-old was sitting her A levels in math and economics just over two months ago. Shoot forward to Thursday and she was sitting calmly answering like a seasoned professional questions from the world’s media after a superb 6-2, 6-4 win over Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in 72 minutes.
Vondrousova, ranked 42nd, might regret having practiced for an hour last week with the teenager, whose performance made a mockery of her world ranking of No. 338.
Canada-born Raducanu moved to Britain aged two with her Romanian father and Chinese mother, both of whom have watched her this week.
She next plays the experienced Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who upset 12th seed Victoria Azarenka in three sets.
Raducanu is not afraid of a challenge, having tried go-karting, aged nine, moto cross, ballet, tap dancing and horse riding before tennis got the nod.
However, her parents were under the impression that her No. 1 priority was to get A* grades which less than 10 percent of the students taking A levels achieve.
“I’d have to say round four of Wimbledon,” said Raducanu when asked whether she would prefer two A* grades or to beat Cirstea. “I think anyone that knows me would be like: ‘What?’ Everyone thinks I’m absolutely fanatic about my school results. They think I have such an inflated ego about it. Actually, I would say I have high standards of myself. That’s helped me get to where I am in terms of tennis and also in terms of school results.”
Raducanu was only handed a wild card into the main draw at late notice, but is now assured at the very least of ￡115,000 (US$158,263) for reaching the third round — about four times her career earnings to date of US$39,558.
Raducanu’s progress into the senior ranks has been stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic and due to staying in school, so she only made her maiden appearance on the WTA Tour last month.
“I think it’s quite incredible really,” she said about the amount of prize money. “I think for me, I’ll definitely use it. I’m sort of at the beginning of my career, just tapping into great coaches. Tennis is an expensive sport. To travel and compete week in, week out, it’s definitely going to go towards funding that.”
Raducanu said that she always felt she could compete at the top level, but injuries and little niggles kept on halting her progress.
“I kept that belief that once I had the opportunity to go out and play, given such an opportunity to play at The Championships, I had that intrinsic belief I could do it,” she said.
Cirstea and Raducanu met at the beginning of the week.
“She’s a very sweet young lady,” Cirstea said of Raducanu.
Cirstea has reached the round-of-32 on three occasions before at Wimbledon, but never gone further.
“I think that just to be able to be at The Championships, I feel like I’m on a holiday, like it’s unbelievable,” Raducanu said. “I just want to stay here for as long as I can.”
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