Taiwanese-Indian duo Hsu Ching-wen and Ankita Raina fell to the top seeds in the quarter-finals of the doubles at the OEC Taipei WTA Challenger yesterday, while Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum upset Chinese eighth seed Wang Yafan in the second round of the singles.
Hsu and Raina were beaten 6-2, 6-2 by top-seeded Chinese pairing Han Xinyun and Zhang Kai-lin in just 57 minutes at the Taipei Arena.
The Chinese duo saved all three break points they faced and converted four of five, winning 54 of the 90 points contested to advance to a semi-final against Japanese duo Kanae Hisami and Kotomi Takahata, who defeated fourth seeds Amandine Hesse of France and Hiroko Kuwata of Japan 6-1, 3-6, 10-8 in 60 minutes.
In yesterday’s other quarter-final, third seeds Marina Melnikova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium battled to a 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 10-7 victory over Thai pairing Nicha Lertpitaksinchai and Peangtarn Plipuech in 1 hour, 48 minutes.
The third seeds next face either second seeds Chan Chin-wei of Taiwan and Junri Namigata of Japan or Taiwanese duo Lee Pei-chi and Yang Chia-hsien, who are due to play the remaining quarter-final today.
In the singles, Kumkhum rallied from a set down to oust the eighth seed 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in 1 hour, 32 minutes.
The Thai world No. 195 saved four of six break points and converted five of nine, winning 80 of the 146 points contested to set up a quarter-final against Misaki Doi, after the Japanese top seed defeated Zhang Ling of Hong Kong 6-4, 6-4.
Also advancing to today’s quarter-finals were second seed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, who downed Hesse 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2; Russian third seed Evgeniya Rodina, who defeated Zhang Yuxuan of China 6-4, 6-3; fourth seed Timea Babos of Hungary, who cruised past Mertens 6-2, 6-2 in just 67 minutes; Belgian fifth seed Kirsten Flipkens, who ousted Zhang 6-3, 6-1; seventh seed Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland, who beat Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-1, 6-1; and China’s Liu Chang, who saw off Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 6-3.
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