Chani Scheepers. Photo: Gallo Images
On court 15 at the US Open in New York late yesterday, the South African flag was flying high.
South Africa’s top female tennis players, Chani Scheepers (ranked 85 in the world) and Chanel Simmonds (ranked 165 in the world) were drawn to battle against each other in the opening round of the last tennis major of the year.
For Scheepers it was a “crunch” match as she has battled this year with injury. Her ranking has slipped out of the top 60 and the 29 year old is desperate to end the season on a high note.
For Simmonds, the 21 year old Kempton Park rising star had nothing to lose. Simmonds had played well to qualify for her first Grand Slam and was relishing the opportunity of playing Scheepers.
The two had never played each other before and there was much anticipation about the result.
Scheepers won the match 2-6 6-2 6-2 in one hour thirty-nine minutes.
Simmonds said she had started well and found it hard to believe that she had won the opening set 6-2 in less than 30 minutes. “I played so well in that opening set! The two very long games in the second set which I lost changed the momentum and gave Chani the confidence to split sets and run away as the winner.”
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