The Chan sisters advanced to the third round of the women’s doubles at the French Open yesterday, while fellow Taiwanese player Chuang Chia-jung was knocked out in the second round late on Friday.
Elder sister Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie of China, the 11th seeds, defeated Annika Beck of Germany and Shahar Peer of Israel 6-3, 6-2 on Court 17 at Roland Garros.
The cross-strait duo saved three of seven break-point chances and converted eight of 10 to complete the victory in 1 hour, 5 minutes.
Beck and Peer did not help their cause by serving up three double faults and committing three unforced errors as Chan and Zheng, who notched a first-serve percentage of 82, won 62 of the 103 points contested.
Chan and Zheng next face Spanish duo Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor, who cruised past Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania and Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-0.
Younger sister Chan Hao-ching and Anabel Medina Garrigues defeated Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 on Court Three earlier yesterday.
The Taiwanese-Spanish duo, winners of the Nurnberger Versicherungscup doubles title on May 23, saved seven of 13 break-point chances and converted eight of 15 to complete the victory in 2 hours, 4 minutes.
Chan Hao-ching and Medina Garrigues, who won 101 of the 196 points contested and were helped by their opponents’ six double faults and six unforced errors, next face ninth-seeded Czech pairing Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, who came from behind to knock out Chuang and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 late on Friday.
The ninth seeds saved eight of 14 break-point opportunities and converted seven of 13.
Fourth seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Flavia Pennetta were due to play their women’s doubles second-round match on Court 17 later yesterday.
The Taiwanese-Italian duo were due to face Madison Brengle of the US and Tatjana Maria of Germany, with the winners to advance to a third-round clash with Janette Husarova of Slovakia and Paula Kania of Poland, who ousted Czech sisters Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova 6-2, 6-1.
Chan Yung-jan was also due back on court later yesterday to play her mixed doubles second-round match with John Peers.
The Taiwanese-Australian pairing were due to take on Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands for a place in the quarter-finals.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but