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Harmony Tan made some astonishing headlines for her Wimbledon debut by defeating Serena Williams of the US and Katie Boulter of the UK. She also made headlines for texting out her doubles partner Tamara Korpatsch. The 24-year-old French Harmony Tan, currently ranks No. 115 worldwide. The 23-time Grand Slam winner was defeated by Tan in a spectacular encounter that served as her debut Wimbledon contest. She had only hoped to beat Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon singles winner, by one or two games. Instead, she triumphed and had a chance to be the first person to ever get to the third round of a major.
Tan stunned tennis fans once more after defeating British tennis player Katie Boulter, a crowd favorite, despite problems with her doubles partner Tamara Korpatsch, whom Tan texted off before their match. She has now advanced to the second week of the illustrious competition. The tennis star had her training at the residence of Melanie Molitorova, Martina Hingis' mother, in Switzerland. She also plays the piano and enjoys surfing. So who is this French tennis player on the rise, and what does she like to do when she's not playing.
Exploring Different Physical Activities As A Child
Harmony Tan, whose birthday is September 11, 1997, was born in Paris to a Cambodian and a Vietnamese couple. Her mother works as a financial journalist, and her father is an engineer, according to the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). According to reports, her family had to sell a house to pay for Tan's schooling. Tan joined the Val-de-Marne League and underwent private training at the Bollettieri Academy in Florida, unlike many French tennis stars in the French Tennis Federation. Five-time Grand Slam singles champion and mother of former World No. 1 Martina Hingis, Melanie Molitorova, this rookie tennis champion with eight ITF titles to her belt, helped her develop her game there.
The professional tennis player also keeps herself active off of the court. In her WTA profile, she has been a competitive surfer for the past 15 years and frequently travels to Biarritz in the summer. As a youngster, Tan also learned how to dance and dabbled in judo and golf. But she realized she loved tennis the most after falling down an escalator, she told WTA in an interview. This young Frenchwoman is quite an achiever and has a passion for music. At a young age, she began loving the piano and became proficient at it while attending a conservatory for eight years. Fortunately for Tan's followers, she frequently posts pictures of her tennis practice, matches, and glimpses into her daily life on Instagram. According to Sporting News, her favorite composers are Beethoven and Mozart.
Harmony Tan’s Earliest Competitions
In 2012, she participated in her first ITF competition in Gonesse, France. She joined the INSEP two years after participating in the competition (the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance). In 2015, she captured her first WTA crown at the USD 10K competition in Algiers, Algeria. Tan has triumphed in seven singles matches, and one doubles match on the ITF Circuit. Nathalie Tauziat is the former World No. 3 finalist at Wimbledon in 1998 and serves as her coach and lost to Williams in the 2000 Paris Open final. At the US Open in 2018, Tan played in her first Grand Slam event. She lost in straight sets to Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard in the opening round and was eliminated. She defeated her countrywoman Alizé Cornet in the opening round of the 2021 French Open, giving her her first Grand Slam singles victory.
Tan comments on RMC Sport in French after her win show that winning in Roland-Garros is always exciting, but doing it in France is incredible. She defeated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the opening round of the 2022 Australian Open in straight sets. Due to a calf ailment, Tan could not get past the second round. Tan was escorted out of Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena in a wheelchair after being forced to leave the match with Ukrainian star Elina Svitolina due to pain.
Becoming The Crowd Favorite By Her Stunning Victories
Harmony currently holds career-high WTA singles and doubles rankings of 90 and 302, respectively. In ITF Women's Circuit competitions, she has won eight singles championships and one doubles title. She entered the 2017 French Open as a wildcard and made her Grand Slam doubles main-draw debut there. She with her partner Audrey Albié lost their opening match to the unseeded team of Pauline Parmentier and Yanina Wickmayer. At the 2018 US Open, Harmony made her WTA Tour and Grand Slam main-draw singles debut and entered the main draw as a wildcard. Eugenie Bouchard defeated Harmony in the tournament's first round, 3-6, 1-6.
The French player made her main-draw singles debut on the WTA Challenger Tour in Newport Beach in January 2019 while defeating Sachia Vickery and Katharina Gerlach in the first and second rounds. With the help of a wildcard, she entered the Strasbourg WTA Tour main-draw singles event in May 2019; she fell to the No. 7 seed, Zheng Saisai, in the first round 6-7, 6-7 and is now worth an estimated amount of $10 million.
Sources: SCMP, HAQ Express, Sport Star