Emma Raducanu, the British teenage wildcard, left Wimbledon yesterday having become the first British woman to reach the final 16 of the competition in 42 years.
Emma Raducanu, the British teenager who flew to prominence at Wimbledon 2021 is now out of the competition after experiencing breathing difficulties in her match against Ajla Tomljanovic. The wild card performed so brilliantly that she became the first British woman to reach the final 16 at Wimbledon for 42 years – and you can bet your bottom dollar that this isn’t the last that we’ll hear of her.
Now that she’s out of the competition, however, who’s left? Raducanu joins far more experienced players like Serena Williams and Heather Watson in being knocked out of the competition, so who’s still in the running to win the Venus Rosewater Dish?
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Ajla Tomljanović: ranked world no. 78
The 28-year-old Croatia-born Australian won the first set against Raducanu in her last match of Wimbledon before the Brit had to retire due to breathing difficulties. Tomljanović’s won four singles and three doubles titles on the IFT Circuit. While she’s yet to win a tournament on the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) circuit, she reached a career high ranking of 39 in 2019.
Born in Zagreb, she switched national allegiances from Croatia to Australia in 2014, and was granted Australian citizenship in January 2018.
Pub quiz fact: her ex-boyfriend is fellow Wimbledon start, Nick Kyrogios
Angelique Kerber: ranked world no. 28
Former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber hails from Germany, which she represented at the 2016 Olympics (winning silver). One of the most accomplished players currently battling it out on the grass down in SW19, Kerber’s already won 13 career singles titles across all surfaces. Her motivation to get into tennis in the first place? Legendary German tennis player Steffi Graf.
Is she about to become world No. 1 again? Quite possibly.
Ashley Barty: ranked world no. 1
Interestingly, the current world No. 1 is a former cricketer. Barty began playing tennis aged four and at 16, took a break from the sport. She ended up playing cricket during this time and only returned to tennis in 2016. By 2017, she’d already won her first WTA title.
Ons Jabeur: ranked world no. 24
Jabeaur hails from Tunisia; at the 2020 Australian Open, she became the first Arab woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament. She’s also the highest ranking Arab player in WTA history and the current No. 1 African player.
In 2019, she was named Arab Woman of the Year in Sports. Oh, and she’s still just 26.
Aryna Sabalenka: ranked world no. 4
The Belarusian player has been a top five player in both singles and doubles, ranked as high as world No. 4 for singles and 1 in doubles by the WTA.
She’s really risen to prominence since 2017, when she led the Belarus Fed Cup team to a second place. Since then, she’s gone on to win at numerous competitions. She’s know for her aggressive style of play.
Which tennis players are out of the competition?
Coco Gauff: ranked world no. 23
Coco Gauff is just 17, making her the youngest player in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) top 100 rankings. In 2019, the Atlanta-based player won a wildcard to play at Wimbledon, where she became the youngest player in the tournament’s history to qualify for the main draw. Elsewhere, she reached the third round of the 2019 US Open, fourth round at last year’s Australia Open and the quarterfinal of this year’s French Open. She’s spoken before at how her interest in tennis was sparked by watching Serena Williams win the 2009 Australian Open on TV.
Garbiñe Muguruza: ranked world no. 13
At 27, Muguruza is a Wimbledon veteran, having lifted the winning plate back in 2017. As well as smashing out eight singles titles, she’s also an accomplished doubles player (she’s won five titles so far). Shortly after taking the Wimbledon title four years ago, she announced that she was becoming an ambassador for the international education NGO Room to Read, which promotes gender equality in education in the global south.
Kristie Ahn: ranked world no. 87
In 2019, Ahn became the first Asian American women to make it as far as the fourth round of the US Open since 2000. Before turning pro, she played tennis for Stanford University and in more recent years, she’s been doing the rounds at all the major competitions.
Eden Silva: ranked world no. 126 (doubles)
One of the last female Brits standing, Silva was competing in the Women’s doubles at this year’s Wimbledon. She’s spoken previously to Stylist about the trolling that female athletes receive, noting that she receives racist abuse online whether she’s won or lost her last game. She’s even received death threats aimed at her and her family.
Speaking last year, she called that she had recently received “a really concerning message from a troll that stood out for me more than usual. It said they would find me and break all my fingers and that they would cut my mother’s head off right before my eyes. It worried me so much that I reported it to the police.”
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