Qualifier Lee Ya-hsuan advanced to the second round of the Hong Kong Open yesterday, while fellow Taiwanese Chang Kai-chen crashed out to Russian lucky loser Anastasiya Komardina.
Lee took just 62 minutes to defeat fellow qualifier Jang Su-jeong of South Korea 6-3, 6-1 and set up a second-round clash with either Heather Watson of Britain or Zhang Kailin of China.
Komardina beat Chang 6-4, 7-5, winning the final seven games as she recovered from 5-0 down in the second set.
Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig also advanced by beating Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand 6-1, 6-2.
Puig was ranked No. 41 last year, but has since dropped to No. 92.
“I had a very difficult year and changed my coach after Wimbledon, and it has suddenly made a huge difference in my game,” the 22-year-old said. “I have started to become more consistent result-wise and win more matches.”
Several top players have withdrawn from the Hong Kong Open because of injury, including world No. 4 Garbine Muguruza.
Lara Arruabarrena of Spain also advanced at Victoria Park, beating Irina Falconi of the US 6-4, 6-3.
In yesterday’s other first-round matches, Yaroslava Shvedova defeated Jarmila Gajdosova 6-4, 6-4 and Anastasia Rodionova beat qualifier Irina Ramialison 6-4, 7-5.
Lee also advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles, seeing off Lauren Davis of the US and Kurumi Nara of Japan 6-4, 6-3 alongside fellow Taiwanese Chan Chin-wei.
Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Kumkhum Also advanced to the quarter-finals after they defeated Hong Kong wild-cards Sher Chun-wing and Wu Ho Ching 6-3, 6-3.
Additional reporting by staff writer
TIANJIN OPEN
Elina Svitolina crashed out of the Tianjin Open in the first round yesterday, continuing a poor run for the Ukrainian who dropped out of the world top 20 this week.
Svitolina, who reached a career-high ranking of 15 after making it to the semi-finals in Cincinnati in August, lost to world No. 115 Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-2, 6-4.
At last week’s China Open in Beijing, Svitolina fell in the second round to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
China’s top player and home-crowd favorite Zheng Saisai, seeded eighth, also lost in two sets to unseeded Russian Evgeniya Rodina 7-5, 6-3.
Fifth seed Kristina Mladenovic took just 46 minutes to down Liu Fangzhou of China 6-0, 6-1.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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