Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan crashed out of the first round of the doubles at the Family Circle Cup on Tuesday.
The Chan sisters, the third seeds in Charleston, South Carolina, after finishing runners-up at last year’s tournament, fell in a 2-6, 6-0, 10-4 defeat to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Ajla Tomljanovic.
The American-Croatian duo saved four of six break-point chances and converted three of six to triumph in a hard-fought contest that lasted 58 minutes.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals on Tuesday were reigning champions Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, who defeated the Chan sisters 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 in last year’s final.
The Spanish-Kazakh pairing defeated American wild cards Madison Keys and Lisa Raymond 7-5, 7-5 in 1 hour, 27 minutes.
In the singles, defending champion Andrea Petkovic opened with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Chanelle Scheepers.
Petkovic, seeded third, lost the opening set 6-1, before taking 12 of the next 15 games to advance.
Others advancing were fifth seed Angelique Kerber, sixth seed Jelana Jankovic and eighth seed Caroline Garcia.
The top two seeds, Eugenie Bouchard and Ekaterina Makarova, were due to start play at the clay court tournament yesterday.
Petkovic was a surprise champion a year ago, but it looked as if she would be a surprise early loser defending her title.
However, Petkovic turned things around to win her seventh straight match at the Family Circle Tennis Center.
Other winners Tuesday were past champion, ninth seed Sam Stosur; 12th seed Belinda Bencic and last year’s losing finalist Jana Cepelova.
KATOWICE OPEN
AP, KATOWICE, Poland
Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska eased into the second round of the Katowice Open on Tuesday with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
World No. 9 Radwanska next faces another Belgian, An-Sophie Mestach, who defeated Polish wild-card Magdalena Frech 6-2, 6-1.
Home-court advantage did not help Radwanska’s younger sister, Urzula, who was defeated 6-0, 6-1 by Elizaveta Kulichkova of Russia.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
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