Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Sania Mirza of India crashed out of the second round of the women’s doubles yesterday as the second seeds were stunned by unseeded Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Alicja Rosolska of Poland.
The Indian world No. 5 and Taiwanese world No. 6 crashed to a shock 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 defeat in 1 hour, 43 minutes on Court 8 at Melbourne Park, despite their opponents serving up six double faults.
Hsieh and Mirza converted just three of 13 break-point chances, hitting just 29 winners compared with their opponents’ 45.
Photo: Reuters
Hsieh and Mirza led 4-1 in the tiebreak, before squandering their advantage to lose it and the first set. They were also 3-0 up in the second set after two breaks, but again they squandered the advantage.
At end of the match, Mirza and Rosolska had an animated chat as they walked up to shake hands with the chair umpire. Mirza was clearly very unhappy about a call made in the first set as Rosolska explained her point of view.
In the mixed doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Marin Draganja of Croatia exited in the first round after a tight 6-2, 5-7, 10-6 loss to fifth seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia.
Photo: AFP
Both pairings served up two aces and five double faults, with Chan and Draganja converting three of nine break-point chances, while their opponents came good on four of seven to wrap up the win in 1 hour, 19 minutes.
In the men’s singles, Roger Federer was also having a bad day, his chances of reaching a 12th consecutive semi-final at Melbourne Park erased in a shocking third-round loss to Andreas Seppi.
Rafael Nadal is still in contention, rebounding from his five-set, second-round win to beat world No. 106 Dudi Sella 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 in a third-round match lasting a little over two hours to reach the fourth round.
Second seed Federer went into the season’s first major in form, winning the Brisbane International warmup tournament and aiming for an 18th Grand Slam title. Nadal was coming off a lengthy stint on the sidelines and had not given himself much chance of collecting a 15th major.
Federer had never lost to world No. 46 Seppi in 10 previous meetings, but made some uncharacteristic errors, including nine double faults — one to surrender a mini-break in the last tiebreaker — in the 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-6 (7/5) defeat.
Seppi, a 30-year-old Italian who had only advanced beyond the second round once on his nine previous trips to the Australian Open, held his nerve, despite some withering winners from Federer, who registered his 1,000th career win earlier this month in Brisbane.
Federer also had a 4-1 lead in the second-set tiebreaker and let it slide.
“I knew how important that second-set tiebreaker was — clearly that hurt, losing that one,” Federer said. “It just broke me to lose that second set and actually the fourth, I should win it, too. Just a brutal couple of sets to lose there. The end wasn’t pretty.”
Federer has won the Australian title four times and had reached the semi-finals or better at Melbourne Park every year since winning the championship for the first time in 2004. It was his earliest exit since 2001, when he also lost in the third round.
“I had to believe that I could win,” said Seppi, adding that he stuck out his racket and hoped for the best on match point — a forehand that sailed past Federer and landed in the corner.
“I was just trying to stay relaxed and just focusing on every shot, and to breathe calm and don’t get nervous,” he said. “I think I did pretty well. Very well. I’m very happy I could manage the emotions.”
The 33-year-old Federer walked over to Seppi’s side of the net to shake his hand after the match and applauded the crowd before he left the arena with his head lowered. It was only the second time in his past 43 Grand Slam tournaments that the Swiss star failed to at least reach the fourth round.
Seppi will almost certainly get another match on Rod Laver Arena for his fourth-round meeting with Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios, who shrugged off concern over a nosebleed to beat Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 6-3, 7-6 (8/6), 6-1.
Kyrgios has form in the fourth round of a Grand Slam after defeating then-world No. 1 Nadal at that stage at Wimbledon last year.
Nadal faces a fourth-rounder against No. 14 Kevin Anderson, who beat No. 24 Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (8/6).
Three-time Australian Open finalist Andy Murray beat Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-1, 7-5 to set up a fourth-round clash with No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov, who had a tough third-rounder against 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis before winning 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Seventh seed Tomas Berdych needed eight match points before beating Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 and next plays Bernard Tomic, who beat fellow Australian Sam Groth 6-4, 7-6 (10/8), 6-3.
In the women’s singles, second seed Maria Sharapova needed just 61 minutes for her 6-1, 6-1 win over No. 31 Zarina Diyas and next meets No. 21 Peng Shuai.
Eugenie Bouchard struggled through a scrappy opening set before getting on top in a 7-5, 6-0 third-round win over Caroline Garcia that featured 10 breaks of serve.
“Yeah, I don’t think it was the prettiest tennis out there,” said Bouchard, who reached the semi-finals on her first trip to Melbourne Park last year and went on to make the semi-finals or better at two of the other three majors in a breakthrough season.
Third seed Simona Halep advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands, missing twice when she served for the match in the eighth and 10th games, before finally serving out.
Halep, who opened the season by winning the Shenzhen Open in China, next plays Yanina Wickmayer, who beat 14th seed Sara Errani 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
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HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite