Top seeds Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan and Liang Chen fought back from a set down to advance to the doubles final at the Internationaux de Strasbourg yesterday.
The cross-strait duo were broken in the second game of their semi-final by third-seeded US duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Taylor Townsend, but they broke straight back in the third, before leveling at 2-2.
However, Kops-Jones and Townsend broke again in the sixth game and held their serve to claim the set 6-3 in 31 minutes by converting their first set-point opportunity.
Photo: EPA
The US pairing broke again in the first game of the second set, while Chuang and Liang failed to capitalize on two break-point chances in the next game as their opponents claimed a 2-0 lead.
However, the cross-strait duo fought back, breaking back in the fourth game to level at 2-2 and then converting their fourth break-point chance in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead.
Although Chuang and Liang missed a chance to close out the set at 5-3, they made no mistake on their own serve, converting their first set-point opportunity in the ninth game to take the set 6-3 and set up a super tiebreak.
The top seeds raced to a 6-2 lead in the decider, before a mini rally by the US pairing got it back to 7-5, but Chuang and Liang won the next two points to take a 9-5 lead and closed out on their second match-point opportunity to claim a 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 win in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
In tomorrow’s final the top seeds will face either second seeds Nadia Kichenokof Ukraine and Zheng Saisai of China or fourth-seeded US duo Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith, who play their semi-final today.
Their only previous success as a partnership was in Gunagzhou, China, last year.
In the singles on Wednesday, top seed Madison Keys of the US rallied from a set and 5-0 down to beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/0) and reach the quarter-finals.
On the brink of defeat, Keys took plenty of risks and the strategy paid off as Lucic-Baroni failed to serve out the match.
“I was definitely thinking that I would be heading to Paris,” where the French Open starts on Sunday, Keys said. “Mirjana was playing well and I wasn’t playing great, and I was just really happy that I was able to find it and figure it out.”
Keys was more cautious in the tiebreaker of the second set and took advantage of her Croatian opponent’s mistakes to seal it.
Lucic-Baroni missed her chance to serve out the match for a third time at 5-4 in the deciding set and her game collapsed in the tiebreaker.
“For sure, my mental toughness was important,” Keys said. “Even at 5-0 I was trying hard and putting in all of my effort. My game was there, it was just a couple of points here or there that hadn’t been going my way.”
Keys was due to face Kristina Mladenovic, who advanced past Alison Riske 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.
Russia’s Elena Vesnina also advanced with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over fourth seed Alize Cornet, with Virginie Razzano waiting for her in the next round after upsetting former French Open winner Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-3.
NUREMBERG
AP, NUREMBERG, Germany
Lara Arruabarrena of Spain upset third seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3) in a rain-interrupted second-round singles match at the Nuremberg Versicherungscup on Wednesday.
After a two-hour delay, there were further interruptions due to the conditions before the world No. 98 reached a quarter-final against Carina Witthoeft of Germany.
The eighth-seeded Witthoeft enjoyed a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 win over Evgeniya Rodina of Russia.
Also on Wednesday, Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan defeated Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.
Putintseva, a qualifier, was due to face sixth seed Karin Knapp of Italy in the quarter-finals.
In the doubles, second seeds Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain were due to face Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia and Evgeniya Rodina of Russia in the semi-finals later yesterday.
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