Canberra’s Wu Yanping had a remarkable week after attending the Canberra International to watch some friends compete in the AO 1 point slam qualifier.
Two rounds were held on court 4 and the Canberra Tennis Centre. The next rounds were shifted to centre court inbetween the men’s semifinals for the Workday Canberra International.
That’s where things got interesting for Yanping.
Nick Kyrgios was at the event to add some colour. He was given the task of picking three people out of the crowd, and they would participate in the tournament.
Yanping would be one of them. The Belconnen club member and Canberra women’s league competitor just happened to have tennis shoes and racquet in the car and she collected them and was ready to face competitors out on court.
With Nick Kyrgios cheering her on from the sidelines, Yanping advanced round by round into the final where she faced Trevor Spencer.
Trevor had defeated pro player Carson Branstine, the world no. 179 after she had dumped her underarm serve into the net. As a pro, it was one and done on serve.
Trevor then defeated former professional player, and local, Alison Bai. Alison had mistimed a smash and Trevor scrambled to get to the ball, he then flicked a shot deep past Alison and she was unable to retrieve the ball.
That set off wild celebrations on centre court.
It was then Yanping against Trevor, he served and then the return came back, he then hit wide. Yanping was the winner. Nick Kyrgios went crazy and gave Yanping a big hug, and she was off to Melbourne.
The prize included return flights and three nights accommodation as well as a coveted spot in the day 2 qualifying event.
Yanping had been a hitting partner of mine when she was a Tennis World member and I was down in Melbourne hoping to get off the waiting list and onto the court, but it wasn’t to be.
I had the pleasure of jumping in as coach and hitting partner for Yanping. We had a good hit at Melbourne’s Flagstaff Gardens Tennis Courts.
For the big event, in round two qualifying, Yanping was drawn to face Marco Mendes, a player from Queensland with a UTR of 9.54, that’s a pretty decent opponent.
Marco won the scissors, paper, rock and elected to serve. He got a good first serve into play and Yanping took a good swing and hit the return deep with pace. Unfortunately it sailed just over the baseline, and that was it.
