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Chan finally living Wimbledon dream

LONDON - Taiwanese number one Chan Yung-Jan finally broke her Wimbledon duck years after being inspired by images of the tournament on television.

Chan reached the second round for the first time, where she will play Russian 12^th seed Nadia Petrova, after a convincing 6-0, 6-2 win over Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder on Monday.

Chan was entranced by the television pictures of the tournament as a youngster, saying the likes of German icon Steffi Graf helped feed her ambition to play at the All England Club.

And the 20-year-old, who had fallen at the first hurdle at this championship four times, says her game will only improve when she meets Petrova.

“I was inspired by Jana Novotna and Steffi Graf,” Chan told AFP.

“I was very, very young and when I was watching I would point to the television and say ‘I am going to play on that court’.

“You never know how far you can go but the most difficult thing is the first round. That is the hardest mentally. I will play better in the second round.

“This was a very important win for me. Last year when I played here it was my first tournament back after an injury and I lost very easily so this year hopefully I can do something different.”

Petrova saw off Germany’s Tatjana Malek in straight sets to set up the meeting with Chan, ranked 84 in the world, who won here first round match in just 49 minutes.

Chan was helped by 33 unforced errors from Schnyder who is now ranked 58 in the world but has been as high as number seven.

Chan converted five break points out of seven and saved three break points on her own serve en route to a comfortable win.

“I was aggressive but I was surprised she made so many mistakes. The last time I played against her I lost by a similar score. But today I was really focused,” Chan said.

This is the first time Chan has progressed into the second round of a Grand Slam tournament this season after early exits in Australia and France.

In the men’s draw, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun made it safely through to the second round of the men’s singles with a 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 win over Horacio Zeballos.

Lu, 26, served 18 aces as he put away the Argentinian, in their first ever meeting, in exactly two hours to earn a second round tie against Poland’s Michal Przysiezny.

World number 82 Lu reached the second round of a Grand Slam tournament for only the sixth time in his career.

He has made the third round just once - at the Australian Open in 2009.