Taiwan is guaranteed a participant in the Malaysian Open doubles final on Sunday after both the Chan sisters earned semi-final spots at the Royal Selangor Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Elder sister Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Saisai of China cruised past Hsieh Shu-ying of Taiwan and Arina Rodionova of Russia 6-0, 6-1.
The fourth seeds saved all four break-point chances they faced and converted five of seven in a quarter-final that lasted only 40 minutes to set up a semi-final showdown with Ukrainian duo Lyudmyla Kichenok and Olga Savchuk, who shocked second seeds Darija Jurak of Croatia and Megan Moulton-Levy of the US 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 in the late quarter-final yesterday.
Younger sister Chan Hao-ching and Timea Babos of Hungary, the top seeds in Kuala Lumpur, had to work a little harder to overcome Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and Poland’s Magda Linette 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
While Daniilidou and Linette sent down five double faults, Chan and Babos saved one of four break-point changes and converted five of nine to set up a semi-final clash with Hsieh Shu-ying’s elder sister, Hsieh Su-wei, ranked the No. 2 doubles player in the world, and Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia.
In the second round of the singles, Hsieh Su-wei crashed out 6-1, 6-2 to top seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, who won her WTA Tour-leading 22nd match of the year, while second seed Zhang Shuai of China defeated Hong Kong’s Zhang Ling 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.
Cibulkova stormed through the first set and broke early in the second, eventually building a 6-1, 2-0 lead, then just like in her first-round match against Pemra Ozgen, she had a slight hiccup — Hsieh won two games in a row to make it 2-2, but just like in that first-round match, the No. 1 seed bounced back, winning four games in a row.
However, there was some drama at the end of the match. Serving for the match at 5-2, Cibulkova needed nine match points to finally close out a stubborn Hsieh in a marathon eight-deuce final game.
In yesterday’s other second-round singles matches, third seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic defeated Duan Ying-ying of China 6-1, 6-3; seventh seed Donna Vekic of Croatia beat Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic 1-6, 6-3, 7-5; and Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey downed Tadeja Majeric of Slovenia 6-4, 6-4.
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