Varatchaya in her first Major 2nd round
Varatchaya Wongteanchai was concerned she might accidentally hit the ball to the pregnant Mandy Minella of Luxemburg as she added new highlight in her portfolio with her first maindraw match win in women’s doubles at Wimbledon on Thursday.
The Thai doubles specialist and Ipek Soylu of Turkey, who came from the qualifying rounds, beat Minella who is four month pregnant and Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 6-1 7-6 (7-2).
“I was nervous a bit during the match. I was afraid I will hit the ball to her belly,” said Varatchaya the only Thai in the maindraw at the All England Club this year.
“I’m so overwhelmed to reach my first second round in a Major maindraw,” added the 27-year-old from Chiang Rai.
The Thai-Turk pair took the first set comfortably and went on to lead 5-3 in the second. They were broken at 5-4 but finally took charge in the tie-break.
“My partner admitted she was a bit excited at 5-3 while the other team started playing better and changed some game plan by using lobs. But in the end we still took control,” Varatchaya said.
They face a tough challenge today against ninth seed Hao-Ching Chan of Taiwan and Monica Niculescu of Romania in the second round at 5.30pm.
“We have nothing to lose. We will try our best and see what happens.”
