I’ve never seen Venus Williams play, says China’s Duan Yingying ahead of third-round clash
The pair meet on Friday at the Australian Open with the American great set to breeze past the Tianjin-based 27-year-old
China’s Duan Yingying on Wednesday said she’d never seen Venus Williams play and will be relying heavily on her coach’s guidance ahead of their third-round clash at the Australian Open.
Despite the seven-time grand slam winner being one of the game’s most prominent players over the past two decades, Duan, 27, insisted she knew next to nothing about the American great.
“I don’t know anything about Venus’s play. I’ve never seen her play,” said Duan, who beat America’s Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 3-6, 10-8 in the second round.
“I don’t really watch that much tennis so I think my coach will do the job to try to tell me what to do on the court. So I’ll take one day off tomorrow and let the coach do the job.”
It doesn’t augur well for Duan, the Chinese number five who is the last player from her country standing after two days of carnage for her teammates.
On Wednesday Zhang Shuai, who turned heads with her run to last year’s quarter-finals, went out to America’s Alison Riske, and Canadian Eugenie Bouchard dispatched former US Open semi-finalist Peng Shuai.