Taiwanese duo Chang Kai-chen and Chuang Chia-jung advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles competition at the OEC Taipei WTA Challenger at the Taipei Arena yesterday after a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Chang and Chuang saved both break-point chances they faced and converted three of 10 to defeat fellow Taiwanese pairing Sieh Pei-yu and Yang Chia-hsien in 1 hour, 2 minutes and set up a last-eight clash with either Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Alexandra Riley of the US or third seeds Chan Chin-wei of Taiwan and Liang Chen of China.
In the final qualifying for the singles both Taiwanese hopefuls missed out on a berth in the first round proper.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Taiwanese Asian Games gold medalist Chan fell to a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 defeat to Katerina Vankova of the Czech Republic, while Cho I-hsuan was beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn.
Also advancing to the first round were Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Ana Bogdan of Romania.
Three Taiwanese are scheduled to play their first-round singles matches on Center Court today, with world No. 1,236 Chan Hao-ching due to face world No. 85 Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand, elder sister Chan Yung-jan, ranked 212th, facing world No. 107 Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria and world No. 462 Chang taking on 98th-ranked Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia.
Top seed Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany and WTA rising stars Kumkhum and Zheng Saisai of China are among the favorites in the singles.
Also in the draw are Poland’s Magda Linette, who is fresh off her first WTA Tour win in Ningbo, China, on Sunday, 44-year-old former world No. 4 Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan and Taiwanese former world doubles No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei.
Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan, who have won two WTA Tour titles together, are the No. 1 seeds in the doubles.
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