Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching lost her women’s doubles match at the Australian Open yesterday, failing to advance to the fourth round of the first Grand Slam event of the year.
The 13th-seeded Chan and US in the third round by fourth seeds Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik, 6-2, 7-6 and 6-4 in Melbourne.
It was Chan’s second time competing at the Australian Open, while Huber, who won the 2007 title with Cara Black from Zimbabwe, was making her 16th appearance at the event.
Photo: Reuters
The Taiwanese-American duo teamed up three times last year, reaching the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September, and have continued playing together this year. Both are primarily doubles specialists.
Yesterday’s fourth round saw the biggest shock of the tournament so far, after an inspired Ana Ivanovic blew the race for the women’s title wide open when she stunned overwhelming favorite Serena Williams.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic was for once forced to cede the spotlight to another Serbian, but showed no signs of relinquishing his grip on the men’s title with a merciless 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 flogging of Fabio Fognini.
Photo: EPA
Third seed David Ferrer also advanced to the last eight and a meeting with Tomas Berdych in his stripy soccer shirt, while women’s fourth seed Li Na and Flavia Pennetta set up a last-eight clash of 31-year-olds.
Li and Pennetta had every reason to expect their path to the final to be blocked by world No. 1 and top seed Williams, until Ivanovic secured a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over the American at Rod Laver Arena.
The Serbian’s win sent her through to a quarter-final clash against Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard, who ended Australia’s hopes of a home champion when she overcame Casey Dellacqua 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-0.
Photo: EPA
“I actually believed,” said Ivanovic, whose mental toughness has been doubted due to her failure to back up her 2008 French Open title.
Williams was riding high on a winning streak of 25 matches going back to the start of last year’s US Open and had not lost a single set to Ivanovic in four previous meetings.
When the 32-year-old took the first set, she seemed to be on her way to a record 62nd victory at the Australian Open, where she is 51-1 after going 1-0 up in match.
Yet in the second set, Ivanovic started to take the game to Williams, attacking the 17-time Grand Slam champ’s serve with a success very few have managed and dictating the back court with her forehand.
Her tally of 20 forehand winners to two for Williams told its own tale but, most importantly, once in front in the deciding set, Ivanovic kept her head before serving out to love for the match.
Williams’s four-year quest for a sixth Melbourne title has been bedevilled by injury, but she offered no excuses until realizing coach Patrick Mouratoglou had let the cat out of the bag about a back problem.
“So he’s the one that’s snitching?” she said to laughter.
Djokovic gave his friend of 10 years Fognini absolutely nothing in their 93-minute encounter on Rod Laver Arena.
The Serbian next faces eighth seed Stan Wawrinka, who hit 57 winners in a highly impressive display of aggressive tennis to overcome Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-3, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) in the final match.
Berdych reached the last eight for the fourth year in a row at the only Grand Slam where he has never made the semis without having given up a service game, let alone a set.
The seventh seed’s 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 win over Kevin Anderson was his 10th in 10 against the South African and left him with “plenty of gas in the tank” for his next match against David Ferrer, who beat Florian Mayer 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.
Former French Open champion Li, who reached the final last year and in 2011, demolished Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-0 to set up the clash with Pennetta, whose journey to her first Melbourne quarter-final was a bit more complicated, as she took 53 minutes longer to beat ninth seede Angelique Kerber 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.
Li had reason to be delighted to face the Italian, saying: “She’s one day older than me, so for once I don’t have to play a younger player.”
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