Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching bowed out of the women’s doubles on “Manic Monday” at Wimbledon yesterday, beaten in the third round by the fifth seeds.
Chan and Alison van Uytvanck looked to be facing a tough task against US duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, and that is how it proved on Court 11 at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in southwest London.
The Taiwanese-Belgian duo failed to convert any of their three break points, while their American opponents converted three of eight, winning 68 of the 123 points contested to complete a 6-2, 6-4 victory in 1 hour, 14 minutes.
Photo: Reuters
The US pairing advanced to a quarter-final against either third seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic or Australian duo Jarmila Gajdosova and Ajla Tomljanovic, who were due to play their third-round match later yesterday.
Chan’s defeat left just one Taiwanese still competing at the season’s third Grand Slam, Hsieh Su-wei, who, along with partner Flavia Pennetta of Italy, was due to face Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Coco Vandeweghe of the US in their third-round women’s doubles match later yesterday.
Top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza advanced to the quarters early yesterday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 16th-seeded Spanish duo Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja, as did ninth seeds Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, who rallied to defeat Italian duo Karin Knapp and Roberta Vinci 4-6, 6-2, 8-6.
Photo: EPA
In the women’s singles, Serena Williams won the latest installment of her rivalry with sister Venus as the world No. 1 eased into the quarters with a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
Serena, bidding for her sixth Wimbledon title, took just 1 hour, 7 minutes to see off Venus on Centre Court and next plays Victoria Azarenka or Belinda Bencic for a place in the semi-finals.
The 33-year-old hit 36 winners and 10 aces to secure her 14th win in 26 meetings with her elder sister, but it was clear neither sibling enjoyed the experience.
“It’s hard to feel excited about [beating] someone you root for all the time no matter what, and you love so much and is your best friend in the world,” Serena said. “It’s never easy to play someone you love and care about, but I don’t know how many more moments like this we’ll have. I plan on playing for years, but you never know if we’ll have the opportunity to face each other. So I just took the moment in.”
Earlier, Madison Keys and Vandeweghe made it through to the quarter-finals for the first time.
The unseeded Vandeweghe, the world No. 47, edged out sixth seed Safarova 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/4).
Safarova reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and made it to her first Grand Slam singles final last month at the French Open, where she lost to Serena.
Meanwhile 21st seed Keys, an Australian Open semi-finalist earlier this year, was the first to make it into the last eight with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Belarussian qualifier Olga Govortsova.
On Court 3, Vandeweghe took the fourth-round contest with Safarova to match point with an ace, then won it with an ace.
The 23-year-old next faces either fourth seed Maria Sharapova, the 2004 champion, or unseeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan.
Vandeweghe had never been beyond the third round of a Grand Slam before this year’s Wimbledon.
Meanwhile Keys was caught cold by world No. 122 Govortsova in the first set on Court 18, but turned it around to defeat the qualifier over three sets.
Keys next faces either Polish 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska or Serbian Jelena Jankovic — the 28th seed who knocked out defending champion Petra Kvitova in the previous round.
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