Hsieh faces Sharapova

Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei in action

Haven’t been keeping a steady eye on the tennis over the last week, but fortunately me old mucker from Blighty, Adbul McFathy, is town for an extended stay and – being a big fan of almost any type of ball bashing – he caught wind of Hsieh Su-wei’s (謝淑薇) second round win at Wimbley.

Hsieh is more of a double’s specialist, so a good volleyer, and was a semifinalist in the mixed at SW19 last year with Aussie Paul Hanley. She’s also been in the mixed semis at the U.S. with South Africa’s Kevin Ullyett and the ladies semis at Roland Garros with China’s Peng Shuai.

I’ve seen her a few times at the OEC Taipei Ladies Open, where she was a finalist with Sania Mirza last year against her compatriots Chang Kai-chen ( 張凱貞) and the rather cute Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容).

For a long time Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) had looked like the one who might break through in the singles, having climbed to 50th in the world as far back as 2007, but Hsieh seems to have come into her own now.

In beating France’s Stephanie Foretz Gacon who is 12 places down the rankings from her at No.75, she has become the first Taiwanese woman to make it to the third round at Wimbledon.

She’ll have her work cut out today when she faces top seed and world No. 1 Maria Sharapova (a big fan of mine). Good luck to the lass!

Afterthought: I see the Beeb seems to have reverted back to sticking with international sports norm of calling Taiwan Chinese Taipei. Actually, here it’s just Taipei. Shame.

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