Chan Hao-ching advanced to the third round of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon on Thursday, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei and Lu Yen-hsun were also victorious at the All England Club.
Following a disappointing day on Wednesday, when four Taiwanese were knocked out in southwest London, Thursday was a much better day for the Taiwanese challenge, spearheaded by Chan and Alison van Uytvanck, who triumphed in the day’s final match on Court 2.
The Taiwanese-Belgian duo defeated Britain’s Johanna Konta and Maria Sanchez of the US 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in 1 hour, 37 minutes.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Chan and Van Uytvanck saved two of four break points and converted four of 17, winning 88 of the 163 points contested to advance to a tough third-round clash with fifth-seeded US duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, who defeated Croatian pairing Darija Jurak and Ana Konjuh 6-3, 6-4.
Earlier on Court 9, seventh seeds Hsieh and Flavia Pennetta cruised into the second round in just 54 minutes with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat of Romanian duo Elena Bogdan and Simona Halep.
The Taiwanese-Italian pairing saved two of three break points and converted five of 19, winning 66 of the 109 points contested.
Hsieh and Pennetta were due to face Russian duo Margarita Gasparyan and Alexandra Panova in the second round yesterday.
In the first round of the men’s doubles, Lu Yen-hsun and Teymuraz Gabashvili defeated Matthew Ebden of Australia and James Ward of Britain 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) in the final match on Court 6.
The Taiwanese-Russian pairing saved three of six break points and converted six of 12, winning 116 of the 205 points contested in 2 hours, 1 minute.
Lu and Gabashvili face 11th seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Leander Paes of India in the second round.
Chan, the runner-up in the mixed doubles last year alongside Max Mirnyi of Belarus, received a lifetime membership of the All England Club ahead of the tournament.
She was due to begin her mixed doubles campaign in the final match on Court 16 yesterday.
Chan and Scott Lipsky of the US were due to take on Polish pairing Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik.
Chan’s elder sister, Chan Yung-jan, and John Peers of Australia received a bye into the second round of the mixed doubles as the 14th seeds.
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