Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the third round of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon on Friday, while Lu Yen-hsun went down fighting in an epic men’s doubles second-round match yesterday.
Seventh seeds Hsieh and Flavia Pennetta cruised into the third round on Court 18 at the All England Club late on Friday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russian duo Margarita Gasparyan and Alexandra Panova.
The Taiwanese-Italian pairing saved three of four break points and converted three of eight, winning 70 of the 125 points contested to complete the victory in 1 hour, 10 minutes.
Hsieh and Pennetta next face Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe after the German-US duo upset 10th seeds Caroline Garcia of France and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
COURT 5 CURSE
The curse of Court 5 continued yesterday when Lu and Teymuraz Gabashvili were knocked out by 11th seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Leander Paes of India.
The court, which witnessed the demise of both Chuang Chia-jung and Chan Chin-wei in consecutive women’s doubles matches on Wednesday, again proved not to be a happy hunting ground as the Taiwanese-Russian duo exited after a 5-7, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 defeat that lasted 3 hours, 14 minutes.
Lu and Gabashvili saved five of seven break points and converted two of five, but it was not enough as the 11th seeds won 160 of the 309 points contested to advance to the third round, while Lu’s interest at Wimbledon ended in the first week.
Chan Hao-ching’s hopes of a second consecutive appearance in the final of the mixed doubles at the All England Club were dashed on Court 9 late on Friday when the Taiwanese and Scott Lipsky of the US were ousted by Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-5.
The Polish duo saved two of three break points and converted four of six to complete the hard-earned victory in 1 hour, 50 minutes and advance to the second round.
Chan admitted the early exit had left her feeling a little down on Friday night, but said yesterday that she was looking forward to tomorrow and a tough third-round women’s doubles clash with fifth-seeded US duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.
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