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Sugiyama happy to break through
For Ai Sugiyama and Tamarine Tanasugarn, a Wimbledon quarter-final berth has been a peak neither could quite reach. Until now.
For Ai Sugiyama and Tamarine Tanasugarn, a Wimbledon quarter-final berth has been a peak neither could quite reach despite coming close over and over again. Until now.
Finally, one of them made it with Japan's Sugiyama thrilled to take victory over Thai rival Tamarine on the way to achieving her best result so far at this tournament.
"I went to the fourth round a couple of times but to reach the quarters, it is the first time this time so I was very happy," Sugiyama said.
Her hard fought 6-3, 7-5 win over Tamarine on Monday made Sugiyama the first Asian woman to reach the quarter-finals at the All England Club since Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia reached the final eight in 1997.
The year before that, Sugiyama's compatriot Kimiko Date reached the semi-finals, becoming the first Asian woman in the Open era to advance that far at the Championships.
World number 66 Tamarine has made the fourth round six times in seven years and, while she admitted to feeling nervous about breaking the deadlock in the past, this year she put no pressure on herself.
"I was just trying to play my games, play my strokes, one at a time," said the 27-year-old.
Meanwhile, world number 12 Sugiyama, who has now beaten Tamarine three times in three meetings, was appearing in the round of 16 for the third time and was pleased she was able to battle through.
"She has been playing really good, especially on grass," Sugiyama, the 28-year-old 11th seed, said of her opponent.
"That's her favourite surface and she's doing good every time she plays Wimbledon so I knew it was going to be very tough.
"But I just played point by point and tried to fight every point.
"I was struggling to hold my serve. Then I was always down.
"I just never gave up and even though she broke my serve, I still had to believe I could break back right away."
The victory for Sugiyama, who has made a grand slam quarter-final just once before - at the Australian Open in 2000 - meant she was due to next meet Russian Maria Sharapova, who beat American Amy Frazier 6-4, 7-5.
