The Chan sisters’ hopes of a French Open women’s doubles title evaporated on Sunday as both Hao-ching and Yung-jan were knocked out of the third round at Roland Garros.
Chan Hao-ching and Anabel Medina Garrigues fell to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 defeat to ninth-seeded Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in a rain-hit match on Court Two.
The Taiwanese-Spanish pairing began the match brightly, breaking serve in the first game, but were struggling to hold their own serve in the second when the rain began to fall in Paris.
When the players returned, the three-hour delay seemed to affect Chan Hao-ching the most as the next three games also went against serve, the Taiwanese committed a double-fault twice as she lost her first service game to love.
After the tight first set went to a tiebreaker, the ninth seeds ran away with the second as the Nuremberg Versicherungscup winners crashed out of the season’s second Grand Slam.
The Taiwanese-Spanish duo saved four of nine break-point chances and converted three of five, but it was not enough as the Czech pairing won 87 of the 160 points contested.
The ninth seeds advanced to the quarter-finals to face either fourth seeds Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Flavia Pennetta of Italy, or Janette Husarova of Slovakia and Paula Kania of Poland, who were due to play their third-round match late yesterday.
Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie of China, the 11th seeds, were shocked 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) by Spanish duo Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor in a tight third-round encounter on Court Three.
The cross-strait pairing saved eight of 16 break-point chances and converted eight of 18, but it was not enough, as the Spaniards rallied from a set down to win 120 of the 233 points contested.
Chan Yung-jan still harbors hopes of a Grand Slam title in the mixed doubles with partner John Peers of Australia.
They were due to take on Zheng and Henri Kontinen of Finland in the quarter-finals late yesterday on Court Three.
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