Top seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan negotiated the tricky transition from grass to clay to advance to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Swedish Open in Bastad on Monday.
The Taiwanese sisters, who traveled to Sweden having both participated at Wimbledon, defeated Evgeniya Rodina of Russia and Stephanie Vogt of Liechtenstein 6-3, 7-5 in the first round of the doubles in 1 hour, 12 minutes.
The No. 1 seeds saved four of six break points and converted four of eight, winning 66 of the 117 points contested on the Swedish clay courts.
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In the quarter-finals, the Taiwanese duo face either Tatjana Maria of Germany and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine or Swedish wild-cards Cornelia Lister and Malin Ulvefeldt, who are due to play their first-round match today.
In the other first-round doubles match played on Monday, Spanish duo Lara Arruabarrena and Beatriz Garcia Vidagany rallied from a set down to defeat Swedish wild-cards Sofia Arvidsson and Susanne Celik 3-6, 6-3, 10-1 in 1 hour, 12 minutes.
In the singles, defending champion Mona Barthel of Germany fought back from a set down to defeat Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-3 in 2 hours, 27 minutes.
The victory ended a nine-match losing streak for the German fourth seed.
“I’ve been a bit unlucky this year — I’ve had a lot of injuries, some illnesses,” Barthel told the WTA Web site. “I feel like the last few weeks I’ve been playing well, but I was just a little bit unlucky. I had match points and didn’t win my match, I had set points.”
“I think just a little bit was missing and sometimes when you come back to a place where you know you’ve played well that can help you a little bit, and add the piece that’s missing,” she said. “I’m really happy I came through today — it was a really tough match.”
In the second round Barthel faces either Jana Cepelova of Slovakia or Carina Witthoeft of Germany, who were due to play their first-round match yesterday.
Also advancing to the second round on Monday were second seed Samantha Stosur and sixth seed Katerina Siniakova.
Australian world No. 23 Stosur took just 1 hour, 4 minutes to complete a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of world No. 151 Julia Glushko of Israel, while Czech world No. 65 Siniakova downed world No. 177 Yuliya Beygelzimer of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4 in 1 hour, 14 minutes.
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