Go Victoria! Congratulations are in order for our young future Serena Williams.
According to Wimbledon.com
When Serena Williams eventually decides to hang up her racket there’ll be a young whippersnapper looking to take over her mantle. She too is American. And her name is Victoria Duval.
There seems to be no stopping the 18-year-old, who topped her three-match winning streak in the qualifying event last week, with an opening round triumph over Romanian Sorana Cirstea. Last week, the Florida resident declared her favorite surface was grass and she certainly looked at home on the SW19 lawns as she plotted her way to 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory in 99 minutes.
The world No.114, who was born in Miami but spent much of her childhood in Haiti until the age of eight, has reached the second round stage of a Grand Slam once before – last year at Flushing Meadows. There she toppled former 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur whilst ranked just 296 to become a household name in the States.
On Tuesday the determination was etched on Duval’s face; she was not going to let anything stand in the way of a second round outing firing off nine winners in the final set, while Cirstea failed to generate one. Furthermore Duval only made five unforced errors, half the number notched up by her Romanian opponent.
Compatriot, Taylor Townsend may have fared less well in her opening round challenge against world No.32 Klara Koukalova but she is nonetheless a promising young gun to keep an eye on. The 18-year-old enjoyed a wonderful spell on the red clay of the French Open last month, reaching the third round before bowing out to No.14 seed Carla Suarez Navarro.
Although her campaign here was less fruitful – she lost 7-5, 6-2 – Townsend was determined not to dwell on the loss.
“I definitely am not pleased about my match, but it’s just a learning experience really,” she insisted. “I’m just going to take what I’ve learned over the past two slams. I’m going to go back home. I’m going to work extremely hard and get ready for the US Open Series. I have tons of tournaments to look forward to and a lot of great things are ahead, but it’s time to just put my head down and work again.” – Continue Reading Here
