Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Chan Chin-wei crashed out of the doubles at the Prague Open on a busy day on Wednesday after rain disrupted the schedule on Tuesday.
The day started well for fourth seeds Chuang and Liang Chen of China when they defeated Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Petra Martic of Croatia 7-5, 6-4 in their first-round match.
The cross-strait duo saved six of nine break-point chances and converted five of six to complete the victory in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
Photo: screen ragb from Facebook
Chan and her partner, Elena Bogdan of Romania, did not fare so well in their first-round clash, with second-seeded Ukrainian twin sisters Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok cruising to a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
The twins saved both break-point opportunities Chan and Bogdan managed to manufacture and converted three of 10 to complete the victory in 1 hour, 2 minutes.
Due to Tuesday’s rain, both the remaining first-round matches and the quarter-finals were scheduled on Wednesday, with Chuang and Liang back on court later in the day to face Madison Brengle of the US and Janette Husarova of Slovakia.
Chuang and Liang took the first set 6-4, but their opponents fought back to take the second by the same scoreline and set up a super tiebreak.
Brengle and Husarova, who played their first-round match on Monday, took advantage of the tiring fourth seeds to claim the super tiebreaker 10-7 and advance to the semi-finals.
Chuang and Liang saved eight of 12 break-point chances and converted four of seven, but it was not enough as they crashed out of the tournament in 1 hour, 20 minutes.
In the singles, top seed Karolina Pliskova rallied from a set down to make the quarter-finals, beating Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/1).
Pliskova next faces fellow Czech, wild-card entry and world No. 103 Denisa Allertova, who upset fifth seed Alize Cornet 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to avenge a loss to the Frenchwoman in the second round of the Australian Open.
Second seed Lucie Safarova was eliminated in the first round after losing 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to Tereza Smitkova in an all-Czech clash.
Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka ousted Smitkova 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (13/11) in what was the second match of the day for both.
Hradecka earlier beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 7-5.
Also on Wednesday, Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium advanced with a 7-5, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5 victory over Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and next faces qualifier Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, who beat Zhang Shuai of China 6-1, 6-4.
Katerina Siniakova defeated Polona Herzog of Slovenia 6-1, 6-4 to meet another Czech, third seed Barbora Strycova, who eliminated Russia’s Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-3.
Wild-card Klara Koukalova was also one of six Czech players to reach the quarter-finals, beating Croatian qualifier Ana Konjuh 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.
GRAND PRIX DE SAR
Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic upset top seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (8/6) to reach the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix de SAR on Wednesday, while second seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland reached the last eight with a hard-fought 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 win against Tatjana Maria.
With both players dropping serve five times, world No. 59 Mladenovic edged world No. 20 Muguruza — the highest ranked player in the tournament — 5-4 in aces and next plays another Spaniard, Laura Arruabarrena.
Bacsinszky, who has had a breakthrough start to the year, struggled on her serve, but she also pressured her opponent’s, breaking the German player five times.
She improved to 25-3 and next faces seventh-seeded Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
Third seed Flavia Pennetta needed well over two hours to labor past world No. 145 Laura Siegemund of Germany 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in a chaotic match featuring 12 breaks of serve and 36 break-point chances.
Pennetta, who saved 16 of 21 break-point chances on her serve, next faces Hungary’s Timea Babos, who beat Brazilian qualifier Teliana Pereira 6-0, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4.
Fourth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine also advanced by beating Christina McHale of the US 7-5, 6-3.
In the other second-round matches, Arruabarrena downed eighth seed Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 7-5, 6-2, while Schmiedlova advanced with a comeback 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over Argentine qualifier Maria Irigoyen.
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