The first Taiwan Open began in Kaohsiung yesterday with all three Taiwanese taking part on the first day ousted from the first round.
Hsu Ching-wen opened proceedings on Center Court at the Yang-Ming Tennis Center against Urszula Radwanska. The Polish world No. 113 proved too strong for the Taiwanese wild-card as she completed a 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) victory in 1 hour, 38 minutes.
Radwanska saved two of seven break points and converted six of seven, winning 78 of the 143 points contested to advance to a likely second-round clash with top seed Venus Williams, who is due to take on Taiwanese wild-card Lee Pei-chi in the first round.
Photo: Liang Wei-ming, Taipei Times
Radwanska was joined in the second round by Japan’s Miyu Kato, who defeated fellow qualifier Sherazad Reix of France 7-6 (7/1), 6-3; Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, who rallied from a set down to beat Kristina Kucova of Slovakia 4-6, 7-6 (7/0), 7-6 (7/3); and Chinese qualifier Zhang Yuxuan, who also had to come from a set behind to down Japanese lucky loser Hiroko Kuwata 5-7, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.
Also advancing to the second round was second seed Misaki Doi of Japan, who ousted Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 in 62 minutes.
World No. 61 Doi saved one of three break points and converted four of eight, winning 67 of the 110 points contested.
In the doubles, Taiwanese duo Cho I-hsuan and Shih Hsin-yuan fell to a crushing 6-2, 6-1 defeat to Marina Melnikova and Mandy Minella in just 55 minutes.
The Russian-Luxembourger duo saved three of four break points and converted six of 13, winning 54 of the 90 points contested to advance to a second-round clash against either Taiwanese top seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan or Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan and Xu Yi-fan of China.
In the other doubles match played yesterday, third-seeded Ukrainian sisters Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok cruised past Carolin Daniels of Germany and Laura Pous-Tio of Spain 6-1, 6-3 in 52 minutes.
Two of Taiwan’s victorious Fed Cup team are due to make their bow in the first round of the singles today on Center Court when Chang Kai-chen takes on Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland and Hsieh Su-wei faces Ayaka Okuno of Japan.
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