Tennis: Serena's French conqueror Tan crushes wild card Boulter to make Wimbledon last 16
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Harmony Tan (right) shaking hands with Katie Boulter after she won their Wimbledon singles match on July 2, 2022.
PHOTO: AFP
LONDON (REUTERS, AFP) - France's Harmony Tan continued her stellar Wimbledon debut on Saturday (July 2) to book her maiden fourth-round spot at a Grand Slam, crushing Briton Katie Boulter 6-1, 6-1 in just 51 minutes.
The 24-year-old Tan proved that her thrilling win over seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams in the opening round was no fluke and she has now won three straight tour-level matches for the first time in her career.
"No, I don't believe it yet - if I sleep a little bit, tomorrow maybe I will believe it, but it's amazing," Tan said on court.
"I think I like grass, I never play on this court but I like to play with slice and volley and everything with my game so I'm really happy.
"It was really emotional for the first round against Serena and after it was just playing match by match and today was really good tennis."
Despite partisan support from the home crowd on Court 2, Boulter failed to put up any resistance against Tan's variety and superb court coverage and the world No. 118 did not help her cause by committing 21 unforced errors.
After breaking Boulter's serve twice, Tan sent down three aces in her fourth service game to bag the opening set in 27 minutes.
The 115th-ranked Frenchwoman secured another early break in the second set, pulled off a "tweener" trick shot to break 25-year-old Boulter again and a third break sealed a one-sided contest.
The big-smiling Tan, who is of Cambodian Chinese descent, did not allow the wild card a single look at her own delivery, hitting her slices to perfection to open up the court and hit 16 winners against just five unforced errors.
She will next meet Amanda Anisimova for a place in the quarter-finals.
The world No. 25 came from behind to beat 11th seed Coco Gauff 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-1 in an all-American clash on Centre Court.
French Open finalist Gauff took the first set after a tie-break but was broken three times in the second set as the 20th seed levelled the match.
A break in the fourth game of the decider put Anisimova in the box seat and she swept into a 5-1 lead with another break.
French Open finalist Gauff took the first set after a tie-break but was broken three times in the second set as the 20th seed levelled the match.
A break in the fourth game of the decider put Anisimova in the box seat and she swept into a 5-1 lead with another break.
The 20-year-old served out to love to set up a fourth-round match against Tan.
