PARIS (AP) - After upsetting seventh-seeded Johanna Konta on Tuesday, Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan is hoping to continue her love affair with the French Open and Paris.
Hsieh, who won the doubles at Roland Garros in 2014, has recently moved to Paris after meeting her boyfriend in the French capital last year.
“In Taiwan we don’t have a professional tennis court so I always travelling to somewhere to practice with my coach and then my friend last year she introduced me to her friend,” Hsieh said with a smile.
“She said ’oh I have a friend in Paris he can take you out for fun’ and then we just go out to eat, with my team not just me, and then things work. And now I am living with him in Paris.”
The 109th-ranked Hsieh beat Konta 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 to reach the second round of the French Open for the second consecutive year.
Hsieh credits her victory with the fact she’s having fun on the court.
“It’s not really easy to play the seeded in the first round: they play all the big tournaments, they are very positive, their mental is very tough, their body is big and strong,” the 31-year-old Hsieh said. “For me it’s just like I go there, I enjoy my tennis, and I try to do my shot … so I just try to be positive on the court.
“I was making jokes yesterday, saying ’coach, I’m so nervous everywhere, I cannot play’ and then when you make it funny you feel more relaxed on the court.”
Hsieh had to dig deep after Konta got off to a flying start, with the Briton winning 13 of the first 15 points and going on to take the first set in just 26 minutes.
“I was thinking ’oh my God I play so bad.’ I was missing a lot of balls and of course my mental went down a little bit so I say second set we start again, I don’t think too much about the first set,” Hsieh added.
Konta has now lost all three matches she’s played at the French Open over her career.
The 26-year-old has won just four main draw matches on clay but she believes she is improving on the red surface.
“I know results-wise it doesn’t reflect it necessarily, but the conversations I have with my coach and the way I feel, I’ve actually made a lot of improvements on this surface with every match that I played,” Konta said. “I really felt that growth-wise and even level-wise I did improve with every single point, game, and set, and match that I played throughout the season.
“It’s unfortunate that I didn’t get the chance to play another match here, because I definitely was enjoying my time on the surface and I wanted the season to continue on the clay.”
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