Harmony Tan's Wimbledon Run Shows Strength of World Tour Tennis

Pictured: Harmony Tan playing at The Shrewsbury Club during her run to the semi-finals of the Budgen Motors World Tennis Tour W60 Shrewsbury tournament in 2019. Picture: Richard Dawson Photography.

This year's Wimbledon is proving the high quality of players seen at The Shrewsbury Club and has done much to whet the appetite for when the World Tour roll sinto Shrewsbury in October later this year. The womens event was last at the Club in spring 2019 with the following two years events cancelled due to COVID but over half of the players in the first round draw at Shrewsbury were in this year's main draw at Wimbledon.

One of the players to hit the headlines is Harmony Tan, who is through to the fourth round of the ladies’ singles at Wimbledon, and reached the semi-finals of at The Shrewsbury Club in 2019.

Tan enjoyed a stunning victory against Serena Williams, the winner of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, in a first round thriller on Centre Court last week and the rising French star followed it up with wins over Sara Sorribes Tormo from Spain and British player Katie Boulter, both in straight sets, to book a place in the last 16.

Tan, 24, will now be hoping to book a quarter-final spot when she faces American Amanda Anisimova today.

Tan, whose world ranking at the start of Wimbledon was 115, hinted at her potential in front of local tennis followers when she entered the Budgen Motors World Tennis Tour W60 Shrewsbury tournament in 2019.

A fine run saw her progress to the semi-finals before being beaten by Yanina Wickmayer, once ranked as high as 12 in the world, in the last four.

Dave Courteen, The Shrewsbury Club’s managing director, well remembers the quality of the performances produced by Tan on the indoor courts at the Club.

He has been keeping a close eye on her progress in SW19 as Tan continues to impress at her first Wimbledon Championships.   

He said: “To see Harmony Tan playing so well at Wimbledon and beating legends like Serena Williams just underlines the quality of players that we attract to the tournaments we so enjoy staging at The Shrewsbury Club.

“It’s been interesting to follow the fortunes of so many players to have played at Shrewsbury earlier in their careers during the first week at Wimbledon. 

“There’s been plenty of notable results in both the singles and doubles.

“Harmony enjoyed an excellent week when she played in Shrewsbury three years ago and played some brilliant tennis to reach the semi-finals.

“That was a W60 tournament, so we are excited about who will feature on the entry list when we host a W100 tournament later this year as this should attract higher ranked players than we have ever had before."

Having been selected by the LTA, The Shrewsbury Club continue to prepare to host a prestigious $100,000 women’s tennis tournament in October.

The new International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour event is expected to feature leading British and international stars.