Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan crashed out of the Apia International in their rain-delayed semi-final yesterday.
The second seeds fell to a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to third-seeded French pairing Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in 65 minutes in Sydney.
Garcia and Mladenovic saved three of six break points and converted six of six, winning 54 of the 100 points contested.
Photo: Reuters
The Chan sisters struggled with their serve, recording five double faults and hitting just 61 percent of their first serves, compared with their opponents’ 82 percent. It is a flaw that they will be looking to put right as they head to Melbourne for next week’s first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open.
In the final, Garcia and Mladenovic raced into a one-set lead, before succumbing to the record-breaking winning streak of top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza.
The Swiss-Indian duo recorded their 29th straight victory in their semi-final on Thursday, beating the record held by Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva, who won 28 straight matches in 1994, and they notched victory No. 30 in the final, rallying to beat the French pairing 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 in 73 minutes in a rain-interrupted match at the Ken Rosewall Arena.
The Chan sisters were the last pairing to beat the world’s top-ranked doubles players in the semi-finals of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, in August last year.
In the singles, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova breezed past Monica Puig to win her 16th career title with a straight-sets victory in the final.
The 25th-ranked Kuznetsova took just 55 minutes to claim a 6-0, 6-2 victory over the 94th-ranked Puerto Rican in a one-sided final at Ken Rosewall Arena.
The 30-year-old, who was making her 11th appearance at the Sydney tournament, served at a high 69 percent with eight aces and broke Puig’s serve five times.
It capped a memorable tournament for Kuznetsova, who upset world No. 2 Simona Halep in a rain-interrupted semi-final earlier yesterday 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-3 in 2 hours, 44 minutes.
Puig had an easy ride into only her second WTA final when Swiss eighth seed Belinda Bencic retired with an illness after losing the opening set 6-0.
Bencic was the third player to withdraw from Sydney because of illness. Defending champion Petra Kvitova pulled out with a gastrointestinal illness before even hitting a ball and Angelique Kerber withdrew after winning her first-round match also with a stomach bug.
In the men’s singles, Grigor Dimitrov and Viktor Troicki mastered the rain disruptions to win two matches each to reach the final.
Bulgaria’s Dimitrov downed Alexsandr Dolgopolov and Gilles Muller to reach his first ATP final in 14 months, while Serb Troicki defeated Nicolas Mahut and Teimuraz Gabashvili to move into his second straight Sydney final.
Fourth seed Dimitrov, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist, accounted for eighth seed Dolgopolov, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and then followed up with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Luxembourg’s Muller.
Third seed and defending champion Troicki fought back from a set down to oust Mahut 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and then took out Russian Gabashvili 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
HOBART INTERNATIONAL
AP, SYDNEY
At the Hobart International, Eugenie Bouchard, playing her best stretch of tennis since sustaining a concussion in a dressing room fall at the US Open in September last year, advanced to the final with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 win over third-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
Bouchard faces seventh-seeded Alize Cornet of France, who beat Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-1, 6-1 in their semi-final.
ASB CLASSIC
AP, SYDNEY
Jack Sock ended David Ferrer’s hopes of a fifth singles title in Auckland when he beat the top-seeded Spaniard 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the ASB Classic semi-finals yesterday.
Ferrer seemed on track for another final when he took the first set, but the 26th-ranked Sock broke the eighth-ranked Ferrer’s serve in the second game of the second set and held for 3-0 and was never threatened the rest of the way.
Sock’s opponent in today’s final is another Spaniard, the eight-seeded Robert Bautista Agut, who completed a rout of the top seeds, beating second-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
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