Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China defeated Croatia’s Darija Jurak and Megan Moulton-Levy of the US 6-2, 7-5 on Court Nine in the women’s doubles at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London on Thursday.
Top seeds and defending Wimbledon champions Hsieh and Peng were returning to competition together for the first time since winning the French Open title three weeks ago and needed some time to get going.
“After the French Open we wanted to get some rest and we didn’t play together,” Peng told the tournament Web site. “This meant at first today I was quite tight. I was glad to get the match done before the rain came.”
The nervousness showed with some sloppy serving from both sides in the first set, but Hsieh and Peng got their act together, converting six of eight break-point chances, while saving one when they served at 5-6 down in the second set, to take the match in 1 hour, 5 minutes.
Hsieh and Peng next face Yuliya Beygelzimer of Ukraine and Poland’s Klaudia Jans-Ignacik, who defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 6-4.
Earlier, on Court 16, French duo Alize Cornet and Caroline Garcia overcame a second-set wobble to knock out Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
The Taiwanese sisters, who won the doubles title at Eastbourne last weekend, converted only four of 19 break-point chances to lose in 2 hours, 18 minutes.
Cornet and Garcia next face either Britain’s Naomi Broady and Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou or seventh-seeded US pairing Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, whose match was interrupted by rain with Broady and Daniilidou leading 6-5 in the first set.
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