Top seeds the Chan sisters began their Taiwan Open doubles campaign with a victory on Center Court at the Yang-Ming Tennis Center in Kaohsiung yesterday, while fellow Taiwanese Hsu Ching-wen and Lee Ya-hsuan advanced to the semi-finals.
Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan looked to be cruising into the quarter-finals when they wrapped up the first set against Zarina Diyas and Xu Yi-fan 6-1 without facing a single break point, but their Kazakh-Chinese opponents fought back to force a tiebreaker in the second, which the Taiwanese sisters won 7-5.
Overall the sisters saved and converted four of six break points, winning 69 of the 119 points contested to wrap up the victory in 74 minutes and set up a quarter-final against Marina Melnikova of Russia and Mandy Minella of Luxembourg.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Younger sister Hao-ching thanked the Center Court crowd for their support.
“Thank you for your passion and making us feel at home,” Hao-ching wrote on Facebook.
The Chan sisters were followed on Center Court by Taiwanese duo Chang Kai-chen and Chuang Chia-jung, who lost a cross-strait thriller against second seeds Liang Chen and Wang Yafan 7-6 (9/7), 7-5 in 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Earlier on Court 7, Hsu and Lee cruised into the semi-finals after a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic and Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland.
The Taiwanese duo saved both break points they faced and converted four of nine, winning 55 of the 93 points contested to wrap up the victory in just 53 minutes.
In the singles, top seed Venus Williams of the US took just 57 minutes to win her first-round match against Taiwanese wild-card Lee Pei-chi 6-3, 6-2.
Williams saved both break points she faced and converted three of six, winning 66 of the 107 points contested to advance to a second-round clash today against Urszula Radwanska of Poland.
Asked about her first impressions of Taiwan ahead of her opener, Williams told the WTA Web site: “I’ve already hit for a couple of hours on the court, so I haven’t had the chance to see a lot. I’d love to see the mountains and the city, but from the plane it looked amazing.”
She also thanked the Chan sisters for their warm welcome.
“First of all they’re [the Chan sisters] really wonderful people. They welcomed me here and told me if I needed anything to let them know — so I think I’ll take them up on that. This year or last year I was watching them at the WTA Finals and it was unbelievable doubles — so exciting to watch it. Never played against them at the same time — I’ve played against them when they weren’t playing together and that was never easy. I guess now they’re going to be representing the country in the Olympics, and that’s so awesome for tennis and so exciting for Taiwan,” Williams said.
In the only other remaining first-round match yesterday, Poland’s Magda Linette beat Wang 7-5, 7-5.
In the second round, Russia’s Elizaveta Kulichkova pulled off the biggest shock of the tournament so far by ousting fourth seed Diyas 7-5, 0-6, 6-4; third seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan survived a second-set wobble to beat Japanese qualifier Miyu Kato 6-4, 5-7, 6-0; seventh seed Kurumi Nara of Japan downed Chinese qualifier Zhang Yuxuan 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; and unseeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova edged past Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
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