Tearful Anne Keothavong may call it a day

Crying shame: Anne Keothavong, in action yesterday, broke down in tears after her defeat
13 April 2012

Anne Keothavong questioned her future in women's tennis after a disastrous US Open first-round loss yesterday.

The former British No1 won the opening set against Tapei's Yung-Jan Chan but then lost 12 of the next 14 games as the world No77 completed a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory to make it successive Slam failures for Keothavong, who ruptured knee ligaments a year ago and had to battle back to fitness.

Keothavong, ranked No142, was beaten by Russia's Anastasia Rodionova in the first round at Wimbledon this summer after leading 4-0 in the final set and the 26-year-old Londoner broke down in tears yesterday as she said: "My ranking and my tennis isn't where I would want it to be, I have higher expectations for myself.

"I am not the player I was two years ago here [when she reached the third round]. I don't know. Who knows what's going to happen after this? I'm going to need time to reassess and decide what I want to do.

"I played a good first set and was dominating and then she changed her tactics and started throwing in the moon balls and I just didn't deal with it very well," said Keothavong, who was treated for blisters on her feet early in the deciding set.

"You have to be brave and take it on and come forward or step back and be strong and work your way within the point. I got stuck in between and it wasn't very good.

"You've got to give it to her because it worked and she just kept doing it. It's not the way I expected her to play but against me today it was effective. She changed her tactics and that's where I shot myself in the foot.

"I've been playing long enough, I should know better."

Elena Baltacha has been left to fly the British flag in the women's event. She plays 27th seed Petra Kvitova, of the Czech Republic, in the second round later today.

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