Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei eased into the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Prague Open on Tuesday, while second seed Lucie Safarova returned to winning ways in the singles.
Hsieh and 21-year-old Ysaline Bonaventure completed a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Slovakian duo Jana Cepelova and Viktoria Kuzmova in 62 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Belgian pairing conceded only one break point and converted three of five, winning 56 of the 107 points contested to advance to a tough-looking quarter-final against top-seeded US duo Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears.
In the singles, second seed Safarova, returning from a bacterial infection that forced her to skip the Australian Open, rallied from a set down to overcome Mariana Duque-Marinoa of Colombia 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in 2 hours, 2 minutes.
“I’m so happy because this is my first win this year in singles and obviously it means a lot,” Safarova told the WTA Web site. “I was trying to be positive after coming back from this long sickness, but obviously it’s about the wins. That’s why I was so excited.”
The Czech world No. 16 saved three of four break points and converted three of nine, winning 100 of the 187 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with fellow Czech Lucie Hradecka, who ousted her doubles partner Andrea Hlavackova 6-4, 6-1.
“I fought so hard and it wasn’t easy — I lost the first set, but came back well in the second and played really well in the third,” Safarova said. “I hope to continue to play well here because the crowd was fantastic. It’s so nice to play in front of your home crowd and hopefully I can continue to do so for some more matches.”
Also advancing to the second round on Tuesday were Russian top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova, Australian fourth seed Samantha Stosur, Czech fifth seed Barbora Strycova, Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, Czech lucky loser Barbora Krejcikova, Czech wild-card Marketa Vondrousova, Camila Giorgi of Italy and French qualifier Virginie Razzano.
GRAND PRIX SAR
AP, RABAT
Top seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland beat Anna Blinkova of Russia 6-4, 6-2 to reach the second round of the Grand Prix SAR on Tuesday.
World No. 15 Bacsinszky, who broke Blinkova’s serve six times, next faces Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine.
Richel Hogenkamp, a Dutch player ranked 139th, overcame eight double faults to upset fourth seed Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-4, breaking the Romanian’s serve five times.
She next faces Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier.
Seventh seed Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine advanced with a 6-4, 6-0 win against Silvia Soler-Espinosa, breaking the Spaniard’s serve six times, while eighth seed Yuliya Putintseva of Kazakhstan won 6-3, 7-6 (7/1) against Alison Riske of the US, who double-faulted seven times.
Laura Robson, Sara Sorribes Tormo, Tatjana Maria, Aleksandra Krunic and Marina Erakovic also advanced to the second round.
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