Chang Kai-chen rallied from a set down to stun top seed and world No. 10 Roberta Vinci at the Malaysian Open yesterday, while fellow Taiwanese Chan Chin-wei crashed out in the first round of the doubles.
World No. 153 Chang caused one of the upsets of the season at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club by fighting back from a set down to defeat the Italian 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the singles yesterday.
The Taoyuan-born 25-year-old saved three of seven break points and converted seven of nine, winning 92 of the 164 points contested to complete the surprise victory in 1 hour, 32 minutes and set up a second-round clash with Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey.
“It’s always an honor to play a top-10 player and I really enjoyed the whole match,” Chang told the WTA Web site. “I told myself after the first set to be more patient, so I slowed everything down, kept more balls in and just played with her. The result came out well. She’s very difficult to play because she slices and spins it, and I’m very happy I could win this match.”
World No. 128 Buyukakcay advanced by defeating Laura Siegemund of Germany 7-5, 6-1.
Two other seeded players also crashed out in the first round yesterday.
Fourth seed Annika Beck of Germany fell to a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, while eighth seed Zheng Saisai lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to fellow Chinese Yang Zhaoxuan.
The only seed to advance was Elina Svitolina of Ukraine after the No. 2 cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Miyu Kato of Japan in just 47 minutes.
Also advancing were Naomi Broady of Britain, Zhu Lin of China and Risa Ozaki of Japan.
In the doubles, third seeds Chan and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic fell to 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) defeat to Japanese duo Eri Hozumi and Kato.
Taiwanese seventh seed Hsieh Su-wei is due to play her second-round match against Kristina Kucova of Slovakia at 2pm Taiwan time today, before Chang and Oksana Kalashnikova take on top seeds Liang Chen and Wang Yafan in the doubles quarter-finals.
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