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.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS