There was little to cheer the home crowd on the first day of the OEC Taipei WTA Challenger at the Taipei Arena yesterday on a disastrous day for Taiwanese players.
Hsu Ching-wen buoyed the crowd as she won the first set of her first-round match against Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand brightly, but it was a brief moment of cheer on a miserable day for the hosts.
Kumkhum battled back to win the second set and then ran away with the third to record a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory in 1 hour, 40 minutes.
The Thai saved two of four break points and converted five of 10, winning 95 of the 168 points contested to advance to the second round of the WTA 125K indoor tournament.
Earlier in the afternoon, the home crowd saw all three Taiwanese players competing lose in the final round of qualifying matches.
Lee Pei-che fell 6-2, 6-4 to Hiroko Kuwata of Japan in 67 minutes; Cho Yi-tsen was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Tena Lukas of Croatia in 55 minutes; and Lee Yang lasted just 52 minutes in her 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Nicha Lertpitaksinchai of Thailand.
The rout also extended to the doubles competition, with top-seeded Chinese duo Han Xinyun and Zhang Kailin seeing off Taiwanese pairing Chen Yen-ling and Juan Ting-fei 6-2, 6-4 in 55 minutes.
In the absence of Hsieh Su-wei, Chang Kai-chen, Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching, Taiwan’s hopes will be resting on the shoulders of Lee Ya-hsuan when she takes on Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland in the first round of the singles today.
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