Fuente : Wimbledon
http://www.wimbledon.org

WIMBLEDON: One to watch: Sesil Karatantcheva

/noticias.info/ Wednesday, 22 June, 2005

Bulgaria's Sesil Karatantcheva is a colourful character. The 15-year-old, who is competing in her first Wimbledon Championships, has picked up the English language by listening to Spice Girls songs and is now learning Spanish thanks to the dulcet tones of Shakira.

Thankfully her tennis skills have been honed in a more orthodox manner. After Nick Bolletieri saw her play at the 2003 Eddi Herr Cup he was quick to offer the right-hander a three week scholarship at his tennis academy in Florida. She now spends half the year training between America and Bulgaria. And it shows.

Making her debut appearance at this year's French Open, Karatantcheva became the 11th youngest player to reach the quarter finals in a Grand Slam. On the way she picked off the likes of Bondarenko and No. 19 seed Asagoe before scoring her best career victory in three sets against No.11 seed Venus Williams. She then followed this with a fourth round victory over Gagliardi, before losing in three sets to No.16 seed Likhovtseva.

This performance catapulted her from No. 98 in the world to No.51 at the beginning of the month. Today she faces a more daunting prospect in the form of current Wimbledon Champion Maria Sharapova on Court 1. But no doubt she will relish the challenge. This is, after all, her debut Wimbledon appearance and reaching the second round is not a bad effort.

If she demonstrates the groundstroke intensity used to grind down her first round opponent Amanda Janes, the 15-year-old will be sure to give Sharapova a run for her money. Not bad for someone who disliked the sport when she was introduced to it at the age of five and a half.

Written by Helen Gilbert notas_de_prensa_archivo