Liu leads young Americans on learning curve

LONDON: Claire Liu is the youngest player at Wimbledon and the Californian teen is surfing a wave of new US talent breaking into the big time.

Liu, 18, last year’s Wimbledon girls’ champion, was back at the All England Club, this time in the seniors, where she gave former world number one Angelique Kerber a run for her money, despite being the lowest-ranked player left in the draw.

“We have a lot of young Americans doing really well. That energy and seeing everybody do well, it pushes me to get better,” Liu said. After coming through three rounds of qualifying, Liu, the world number 237, beat Croatia’s Ana Konjuh in the first round to set up Thursday’s clash with Kerber. Liu took the first set off the two-time Grand Slam champion but lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to the German 11th seed on the 1,000-seater Court 12 show court. It was the first time that Liu had faced a top 10 player and she was pleased with how she stood up to the test.

“Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way I’ve performed,” she said.

“I tried to play as if I had nothing to lose and seeing that I took a set off her, it gives me some confidence to know that I can play against the top pros. “I’m just going to learn. Every single match that I’ve played, I can learn from, especially this one. It was such a great experience and hopefully I can carry it into the rest of the season.” Liu is part of a wave of US teenagers breaking through on the women’s tour, including Sofia Kenin, Catherine Bellis, Caroline Dolehide and Amanda Anisimova.