Harmony Tan and those closest to her are delighted after her dramatic win against the seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams. Unfortunately, Tan's scheduled doubles partner at SW19 is not as happy with her.
Tan's meeting with Williams on Center Court on Tuesday was the 23-time Grand Slam winner's first singles match in 12 months. She was previously sidelined with a leg injury sustained at last year's Wimbledon Championships.
What followed was one of the most dramatic battles of the season so far. After Tan narrowly won the opening set 7-5, Williams stormed back to force a decider by taking the second set 6-1.
Despite the American receiving vocal crowd support, she could not get over the line. Tan held her nerve superbly to clinch victory in a tense third set. The final score was 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 in favor of the Frenchwoman.
Tan will be feeling understandably stiff after such a tough battle. That led to the 24-year-old withdrawing from the women's doubles at Wimbledon. However, her doubles partner Tamara Korpatsch was left seething by how Tan did this.
Korpatsch claimed Tan waited until an hour before the start of their scheduled doubles match before sending a text informing the German of her decision to withdraw from the doubles.
"Unfortunately my Doubles Partner H. Tan retired from our doubles today. She just texted me this morning. Let me wait here 1 hour before the match start. I'm very sad, disappointed and also very angry that I can't play my 1st Doubles Grand Slam."
The complaints about Tan did not end there. Korpatsch was particularly annoyed by the withdrawal since Tan asked her to play doubles before the tournament. She also claimed that players who are too physically drained to compete the day after a three-hour match should not be playing professionally.
"And It's really not fair for me. I didn't deserve that. She asked me before the tournament if we wanna play doubles and I said yes, I didn't ask her, she asked me! If you're broken after a 3h Match the day before, you can't play professional. That's my opinion."