Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the second round of the singles at the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, while fellow countrywoman Chang Kai-chen triumphed in the first round of the doubles.
Seventh seed Hsieh defeated Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour, 23 minutes at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club.
The Taiwanese saved one of four break points and converted five of 10, winning 69 of the 129 points contested in the Malaysian capital to set up a second-round clash with another Slovakian, Kristina Kucova.
Kucova advanced by edging Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in 1 hour, 42 minutes.
Also advancing to the second round yesterday was German third seed Sabine Lisicki, who ousted Magda Linette of Poland 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in 1 hour, 40 minutes.
The German faces Barbora Krejcikova in the second round after the Czech qualifier defeated China’s Wang Yafan 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 in 1 hour, 52 minutes.
It was not a good day for fifth seed Nao Hibino of Japan as she fell to a shock 6-4, 6-2 loss to Duan Ying-ying of China in just 67 minutes.
Duan next faces fellow Chinese Wang Qiang, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum in just 64 minutes.
Kurumi Nara of Japan survived the longest of the opening day’s singles matches, defeating Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (12/10) in 3 hours, 19 minutes.
In the first round of the doubles, Chang and Oksana Kalashnikova defeated Valentyna Ivakhnenko of Russia and Lidziya Marozava of Belarus 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in 1 hour, 28 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Georgian duo saved eight of 14 break points and converted seven of 12, winning exactly half of the 146 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against either top-seeded Chinese duo Liang Chen and Wang Yafan or Linette and Zhang Kai-lin of China.
Also advancing yesterday were fourth-seeded Russian pairing Marina Melnikova and Alexandra Panova, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand and Kotomi Takahata of Japan.
They next face Katarzyna Piter of Poland and Maryna Zanevska of Ukraine after they claimed a hard-fought 6-4, 6-7 (1/7), 11-9 win over Naomi Broady of Britain and Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey.
In related news, Taiwanese sisters Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching earned career-high doubles rankings of fifth and sixth in the world respectively yesterday following their victory at the Qatar Open on Saturday.
Chan Yung-jan (5,360 points) and Chan Hao-ching (5,335 points) both climbed four places in yesterday’s rankings and now have just Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza (12,925 points), Yaroslava Shvedova (5,595 points) and Casey Dellacqua (5,630 points) above them on the list.
In the singles rankings, Hsieh fell four places to 65th in the world, while Chang dropped two spots to No. 153.
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