Taiwan’s injury and illness-hit Fed Cup team face a relegation playoff with Hong Kong today after a third successive defeat in Asia/Oceania Group I play at the Guangdong Olympic Tennis Center in Guangzhou, China, yesterday.
With highest-ranked singles player Hsieh Su-wei missing with an illness, Lee Ya-hsuan fell to a 6-1, 6-3 defeat to Wang Qiang of a similarly injury-plagued China in the first singles rubber in the Pool B match.
“Today, I played really well and controlled the game,” Wang told the Fed Cup Web site.
Photo: AFP
“I got some trouble at the start of the second set, but I dealt with it well and won the game,” Wang said.
With top-ranked Chinese players Peng Shuai and Zhang Shuai struggling for fitness, Zheng Saisai took on Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan in the second singles rubber.
Zheng won the first set 6-2, then Chan rallied to claim the second 6-4, but it was all in vain as the Taiwanese fell behind 4-0 in the third set before retiring with a recurrence of an injury.
Wang and Zheng then teamed up in the doubles against Taiwan’s Lee and Chan Hao-ching, and they were leading 2-1 before they retired because of an injury to Wang.
Taiwan finished bottom of the pool with a 3-6 record after three straight losses and they face Hong Kong in the relegation playoff today. While Taiwan may have to rely on Lee and Chan Hao-ching in today’s match, they should still be favorites after Hong Kong finished bottom of Pool A with a 0-9 record after three matches, including a 3-0 defeat to South Korea yesterday.
Top seeds Japan, who finished top of Pool A with a perfect 9-0 record after three consecutive 3-0 victories, face Pool B table-toppers Kazakhstan (6-3) today in the match to decide which team advances to the World Group II playoffs in April.
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