Maverick Hsieh promises more ‘Su-wei style’ tennis
melbourne — Hsieh Su-wei was happy to hear she had driven former champion Angelique Kerber “crazy” at the Australian Open on Monday, saying she had no plan to change her freestyling ways.
The maverick Taiwanese former doubles world number one opened her box of tricks and almost cast a spell over the German two-time Grand Slam winner.
Kerber eventually reached the quarterfinals 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in 2hr 8min of riveting action.
An enthralled Rod Laver Arena crowd were treated to Hsieh’s full repertoire of drop shots, slow-paced winners and high looping ‘moon balls’ as time and again she found incredible angles to mesmerise Kerber.
“I’m driving her crazy?” Hsieh said, when told by media she had been driving Kerber “crazy a little bit.”
“OK. This is good you told me that,” said the world number 88 before smiling “next time we try to do more. It was fun to make my opponent and myself run all the time.”
If Hsieh had a game plan, it worked a dream in the opening set which she won behind a dazzling array of unpredictable shot-making.
But the likeable Hsieh revealed she had forgotten to do her homework on Kerber and was making up her strategy as she went along.
“Actually, my boyfriend was looking at her game earlier this morning. I forgot to ask him what she play, so, I actually have no plan to go on the court,” she said.
“So I was trying to go my Suwei style, you know.”
Plan or not, she forced Kerber to the brink in the second set as the German served at 4-5, 0-15. Hsieh was just three points away from a first ever Slam quarterfinal in her 28th main draw appearance stretching back to the 2005 US Open.
“I was thinking, Oh, I have a chance. I want to hang in there and then get my shot.”
Kerber held and broke for the crucial advantage and held to love to level the match before easing to victory in the final set.
So how would Hsieh describe “Su-wei style’”?
“I like to play freestyle. When the ball come, I decide at the last moment where to hit, so sometime the girls say: ‘Oh, I don’t know where she hit it’,” she smiled. —