Four to watch at wimbledon
Updated: 2013-06-23 07:51
(China Daily)
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Young, colorful and heading for the headlines at Wimbledon, AFP looks at four players with plenty to offer, on and off the court:
Donna Vekic
- Not 17 until June 28, Vekic is the youngest player in the top 300 and will be making her Wimbledon debut. Tall, blonde, self-assured, the London-based Croatian has not surprisingly already drawn comparisons with Maria Sharapova, who was a Wimbledon champion at 17.
The world No 64 was runner-up in Birmingham last weekend in what was her second final appearance.
Yulia Putintseva
- No 90 in the world, the Russian-born Kazakh may only stand at a modest 1.63m, but she's not lacking in big opinions.
At the Brussels claycourt event in the run-up to the French Open, she was accused of poor sportsmanship by Coco Vandeweghe after beating the American in qualifying.
"I have never played a person with worst sportsmanship... Putintseva...," tweeted Vandeweghe.
Grigor Dimitrov
- Former boys champion at Wimbledon, Dimitrov will attract the tabloids' attention courtesy of his own good looks and the fact that he is dating Maria Sharapova.
The 22-year-old Bulgarian defeated world No 1 Novak Djokovic in Monte-Carlo before being pictured for the first time walking arm-in-arm through the streets of Madrid with Sharapova.
Ernests Gulbis
- The 24-year-old Latvian, was just outside the top 20 in 2011. That was before Gulbis, the son of an investment banker, lost his career focus and slipped down to 150 at the end of 2012, a consequence of too many late nights and a fondness for drinking and smoking.
"I could go out and get wasted and smoke some stuff, you know. Not some stuff, cigarettes. Marijuana, unfortunately, it's not legal for tennis players, which I honestly don't understand why. But that's my own opinion. But yeah, now I quit everything, and I live a healthy lifestyle," he said.
(China Daily 06/23/2013 page8)