Taiwan’s Chan sisters cruised into the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, on Monday.
Top seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan, the world No. 32 and No. 22 in doubles respectively, crushed Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm and Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-1, 6-3 at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium at Stanford University.
The Taiwanese sisters saved five of six break points and converted five of eight, winning 55 of the 90 points contested to wrap up the victory in just 53 minutes.
Photo: AFP
In the quarter-finals, the top seeds are to face Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Tatjana Maria of Germany, who ousted Eva Hrdinova of the Czech Republic and Petra Martic of Croatia 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 in their first-round match on Monday.
In the singles, sixth seed Andrea Petkovic got her body “realigned” and returned to form to beat fellow German Carina Witthoeft in their first-round match.
“I played really bad up to 1-5,” Petkovic said. “It felt like my upper body and lower body were swapped. After that I played fine.”
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
World No. 17 Petkovic won 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.
“Stanford is special with the conditions. The ball really flies,” she said. “You have to feel the court.”
Seventh seed Madison Keys also advanced. The world No. 18 of the US needed just 52 minutes to take care of Aleksandra Krunic 6-3, 6-0.
“I think I played really well,” Keys said. “Once I got the lead, I tried to keep the pressure on her. My first serve was definitely working for me and that’s something I want to keep up.”
Teenager CiCi Bellis of the US lost her first-round match to Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi 6-3, 7-6 (7/3). Bellis was the youngest player in 15 years to win a match at the US Open last year.
“I thought I played pretty well and gave her a good fight,” said Bellis, who lives a few minutes from the campus. “It’s good for me to play against players ranked so high.”
Qualifier Nicole Gibbs, who won a pair of NCAA singles titles while at Stanford, beat France’s Caroline Garcia 6-4, 7-5 for her first WTA Tour victory since April.
“This was a big barrier for me to break through,” Gibbs said. “To do it in front of my home crowd was something special.”
Alison Riske of the US topped Maria 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 to earn a date with third-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro in the second round of the tournament that is a tune up for the US Open at the end of the month. Doi meets second seed Agnieszka Radwanska tomorrow.
Also on Monday, Mona Barthel beat wild card Carol Zhao 6-3, 6-0.
World No. 1 and defending champion Serena Williams withdrew last week due to injury.
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