Reigning champion Charlotte Cornwallis of Britain powered through her opening match of the Women’s World Real Tennis Championship at Newport, Rhode Island beating young American Caroline Lippincott in straight sets to reach the quarter-final. Cornwallis, is bidding for her third world singles crown in a row, after achieving a double Grand Slam last month when she took the British Open singles and doubles crowns at Seacourt Club, Hayling Island. She is tipped to meet the rising Australian Amy Hayball in the semi-final prior to a likely rematch against Cambridge undergraduate Karen Hird, the British Open runner-up, in the final. Hird now meets the powerful Jane Lippincott, the American 2, en route to a probable semi-final meeting with US number 1 Freddy Adam who also enjoyed a comfortable passage through against her compatriot Sheila Reilly.
Cornwallis, a former hockey international, has found the US a happy hunting ground. In 2001 she took her first world singles crown at Washington DC, near where her distinguished ancestor General Charles Cornwallis lost the battle of Yorktown and with it the rebellious colony of America.
Results: Newport, Rhode Island. Women’s World Real Tennis Championship
(Names British unless stated)
2nd round: C.Cornwallis bt C.Lippincott 6-0 6-0
A.Hayball (Australia) bt P.Homer (US) 6-0 6-0
F.Adam (US) bt S.Reilly (US) 6-1 6-1
J.Lambert bt J.Winthrop (US) 6-3 6-1
J.Lippincott (US) bt J.Radeljevic (US) 6-1 6-0
K.Hird bt S.Lacombe (US) 6-0 6-0
