Three Taiwanese are to feature in ATP Tour and WTA Tour finals today on an unprecedented day for the nation’s tennis players.
On Thursday, Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) and Raven Klaasen of South Africa advanced to the men’s doubles final at the Geneva Open in Switzerland, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain made the women’s doubles final at the Nuremberg Versicherungscup in Germany, while cross-strait duo Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) and Liang Chen (梁辰) rallied from a set down to advance to the women’s doubles final at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in France.
In Geneva, Lu and Klaasen defeated fourth seeds Treat Huey of the Philippines and Scott Lipsky of the US 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 to earn their shot at the title.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
The Taiwanese-South African duo saved all five break-point chances they faced and converted one of five to edge the tight match in 1 hour, 14 minutes.
In today’s final they face either Alexander Bury of Belarus and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan or second-seeded Colombian duo Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, who were due to play their semi-final late yesterday.
Lu has three previous ATP Tour doubles titles, most recently at the Chennai Open in India in January, while Klaasen has six.
In Nuremberg, second seeds Chan and Medina Garrigues defeated Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia and Evgeniya Rodina of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in their semi-final.
The Taiwanese-Spanish duo saved four of six break-point opportunities and converted four of 11 to complete the victory in 1 hour, 25 minutes.
In today’s final they face either Elena Bogdan of Romania and Eva Hrdinova of the Czech Republic or fourth seeds Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and Raluca Olaru of Romania, who were due to play their semi-final late yesterday.
World No. 35 Chan has five previous WTA Tour doubles titles, most recently with her elder sister, Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然), at the Thailand Open in Pattaya in February, while world No. 40 Medina Garrigues has 24.
In Strasbourg, top seeds Chuang and Liang face second seeds Nadia Kichenok of Ukraine and Zheng Saisai (鄭賽賽) of China after they defeated fourth-seeded British duo Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith 6-1, 5-7, 10-3 in the other semi-final yesterday.
Taiwanese world No. 71 Chuang has 20 previous WTA Tour doubles titles, most recently with Liang at the Gunagzhou International in China in September last year, while world No. 62 Liang has two.
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