U.S. Women’s Tennis Fan Alert: Struggling Display at WTA Quebec City
Who’s next in U.S. women’s tennis after the Williams sisters retire? No one, apparently. There are no U.S. women in the Top 70 on the WTA Rankings after the No. 1 (Serena) and No. 4 (Venus) ranked siblings.
ADHEREL
This week at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City, a lowly $220K WTA event, a few Americans are battling to rise to the top of the list of players to “watch for,” though many have already had their 15 minutes (or more) of fame.
Four Americans are in the quarterfinals as of Friday in Q.C. On Thursday unseeded Christine McHale beat Canadian wildcard (what’s better than seeing that on the other side of your draw?) Valerie Tetreault, and American qualifier Alexa Glatch upset Canadian Stephanie Dubois. If there girls continue to face nothing but Canadians, their rise into the Top 20 is assured!
“I knew the crowd would be behind her, but that it would be nothing against me,” said McHale, who has played mostly on the ITF circuit this year. “I knew she was playing well, so I just tried to play solidly and use my forehand. I just had to focus on myself and my game.”
They joined Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Melanie Oudin who made it into the quarters on Wednesday. Mattek-Sands is a grinder mostly known for her knee-high socks, and Oudin with her small-ball game has seemingly already had her 15 minutes of fame last year at the US Open.
Today the American star wanna-bees will further be sorted when Glatch plays McHale, Mattek-Sands faces Rebecca Marino, and Oudin has a tester against another former “can’t miss” start, Czech and girlfriend of Tomas Berdych, Lucie Safarova.
Keep tabs this weekend to see who comes out on top. Then try not to kill yourself, realizing this is the best the U.S. currently has in the pipe for the next two years.
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