Chuang Chia-jung advanced to the semi-finals of the doubles at the Internationaux de Strasbourg on Wednesday, while fellow Taiwanese Chan Chin-wei was beaten in the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Nuernberg Versicherungscup.
Second seeds Chuang and Darija Jurak rallied from a set down to edge a tight quarter-final 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4), 10-8 against Nicole Melichar of the US and Alicja Rosolska of Poland in two minutes short of two hours on the red clay in France.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved six of 10 break points and converted four of eight, winning 89 of the 172 points contested to advance to a semi-final today against third seeds Maria Irigoyen of Argentina and Liang Chen of China.
In the second round of the singles, fourth seed Kristina Mladenovic rallied from a set down and survived a third-set fightback by Alison Riske of the US to advance 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in a minute over three hours.
Riske fought back from 5-1 in the third set, saving four match points to draw level at 5-5 before forcing the tiebreak, but the Frenchwoman prevailed to the delight of the home crowd.
“Physically, it was tough out there today. Long, tight rallies. A lot of mistakes from me,” Mladenovic told the WTA Web site. “The crowd were the difference. There was suspense — at 5-1 I think we thought it was done, but she fought back to get the tiebreak.”
“She saved a lot of match points, but I’m just happy I could get the win today. I took the tiebreak point by point, calmed things down. That was the key,” she said.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals was French wild-card Pauline Parmentier, who ousted second seed Sloane Stephens of the US 6-3, 1-6, 6-4; seventh seed Elena Vesnina of Russia, who defeated Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-4, 7-5; Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who shocked eighth seed Timea Babos of Hungary 6-1, 6-4; and French lucky loser Virginie Razzano, after Monica Puig of Puerto Rico retired in the third set.
In Nuremberg, Germany, Chan and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands fell to a 6-0, 6-4 defeat to German duo Annika Beck and Anna-Lena Friedsam in just 52 minutes.
In the second round of the singles, Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens dealt a blow to top seed Roberta Vinci’s French Open preparations with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) victory in 1 hour, 19 minutes.
“I’m really happy with the win today, of course. I’m always happy to have a few matches before Paris and I think my level was OK today,” Bertens told the WTA Web site. “I didn’t start [the second set] so good, I was 4-1 down, but then I started to be a little more patient — trying to hit the ball in the court — and from there be more aggressive, and that worked pretty well today.”
In the quarter-finals, Bertens was due to face Irina Falconi of the US, who saw off Japanese sixth seed Misaki Doi 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Also advancing were Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia, who stunned second seed Laura Siegemund of Germany 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-1; Varvara Lepchenko of the US, who ousted fifth seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-2, 7-6 (7/5); and Julia Goerges of Germany, who downed eighth seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-2.
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