Lu Yen-hsun crashed out of the men’s singles at Wimbledon in London yesterday, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei cruised into the second round of the women’s singles late on Monday.
Taiwanese world No. 61 Lu started well against world No. 102 Dustin Brown, winning the first set, but the unorthodox German then began to frustrate Lu, bouncing back to complete a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory in 2 hours, 7 minutes.
The German saved three of five break points and converted four of 13 to set up a second-round clash with either 10th seed Rafael Nadal of Spain or Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.
Photo: AFP
World No. 131 Hsieh caused a minor upset in the final match on Court 5 on Monday when she ousted world No. 50 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-1, 6-4 in just 56 minutes.
The first set lasted less than 30 minutes, with Hsieh breaking in the fourth game when the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist squandered two game points at 40-15. Hsieh broke again in the sixth game and then served out the set to love.
Hsieh broke the Kanepi serve straight away in the second set and held her serve for the rest of the match, serving out to love in the final game and sealing the victory with a forehand winner.
The Taiwanese converted three of 11 break points, while her opponent failed to create any, with the Taiwanese winning 67 of the 111 points contested to set up a second-round match with sixth seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, who had to come from behind to oust Alison Riske of the US 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Realistically, Hsieh’s best chance of lifting a trophy at the All England Club is in the women’s doubles, in which the Taiwanese and her partner Flavia Pennetta of Italy, seeded seven, face Romanian duo Elena Bogdan and Simona Halep.
Hsieh won the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon in 2013 with Peng Shuai of China and briefly held the world No. 1 ranking, although she has since slipped to 23rd.
Also featuring in the women’s doubles are Eastbourne finalists Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie, seeded 13, who face Australian duo Jarmila Gajdosova and Ajla Tomljanovic. Chan’s younger sister, Chan Hao-ching, and Alison van Uytvanck of Belgium face German duo Julia Goerges and Carina Witthoeft, while Chuang Chia-jung and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland take on Mona Barthel of Germany and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.
Lu is taking part in the men’s doubles with partner Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia. They are drawn against Matthew Ebden of Australia and James Ward of Britain.
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