Sadly, the amount of women’s faces on the back pages of the nationals will return to its normal count of zero shortly, but for the last few days we’ve had some real reasons to get excited about women’s sport in the UK.
One particular excitement is 23-year-old Guernsey born Heather Watson. who has reached the third round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2012 after an impressive 6-4 6-2 win over Daniela Hantuchova.
Here’s a few things you need to know about the little lady before she goes up against Serena (David and Goliath, anyone?) in the third round.
She talked about periods at the Australian Open because FYI periods exist
The sports world got all hot and bothered in January (or some of the guys did at least) when Heather spoke up about the nightmare that are periods for professional tennis players who spend a lot of time wearing skimpy clothes and sometimes even white. She spoke up and blamed a disappointing performance at the Australian Open on ‘girl things’ and thus smashed sports’ final taboo.
She sometimes bans her parents from watching her play
Heather’s been known to ban her rents from the stands because she thinks they’re bad luck and she’s a a bit superstitious. We’d probably do the same, to be fair. Parents plus sport equals bad memories of over-excitement and embarrassment at school sports days.
She’s one of the best sports women to follow on Instagram
Taylor Swift and friends’ cat pictures dominate most of our Instagram feeds, and recently we’ve been feeling like maybe we need a bit more variety. Heather’s pics are part red-carpet-glam, part sports-spiration, part girl-next-door hanging-with-her-mates and if anything, she makes us want to get our butts out the front door and do some exercise. Which is never a bad thing.
She’s not going to let anyone stop her doing what she wants to do
In a recent New York Times interview the tennis star opened up about receiving death threats on social media (mainly believed to be from bookies – real nice). In a post-match press conference this week, she elaborated, telling reporters that it’s not going to deter her. ‘I think some people get sick of me posting pictures. But I like it so I’m going to keep doing it.’ Girl power.
And not to freak anyone out, but this will be the biggest challenge of her career so far
This is the first time that young Heather has faced the indomitable force of nature that is 20-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams. And it would take a small miracle for Heather to win. But regardless of the outcome, she’ll leave with her head held high.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.