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Taiwanese trio victorious in Melbourne

Taiwan's Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung made an impressive start in their bid to win the women's doubles title at the Australian Open yesterday, earning a comfortable straight-sets victory over Alicja Rosolska and Maria Emilia Salerni.

Last year's finalists made short work of the Polish/Argentine duo, taking the first set 6-3 before further asserting their dominance by winning the second 6-1.

Meanwhile, Hsieh Su-wei claimed another Melbourne victory, this time with the help of Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva. After reaching the third round of women's singles on Wednesday, Hsieh teamed up with the Russian in the doubles yesterday to win a see-saw match against Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands and Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in three sets.

Hsieh and Kudryavtseva won the first set 6-4 before their opponents leveled the match, winning the second set by the same score. Hsieh and Kudryavtseva then took the deciding set 6-4.

The 22-year-old Taiwanese player moves into unchartered territory today when she plays Aravane Rezai of France in round three of the singles. It is the first time Hsieh has progressed so far in a Grand Slam tournament, and the prize of a probable match against world No. 1 Justine Henin awaits the winner.

First Hsieh has to get past Rezai, no easy task as the 19-year-old from St Etienne is ranked 89 spots above her. Rezai reached the fourth round of the US Open in 2006 and is in good form, having reached the final of the WTA tournament in Auckland earlier this month and disposed of No. 13 seed Tatiana Golovin in the previous round.

Past form offers no clues as to the result of today's clash, as Hsieh and Rezai have yet to meet in a WTA tournament.
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