The Chan sisters survived a scare to advance to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Aegon Open in Nottingham, England, on Wednesday, but fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the second round of the singles after being outplayed by Alison Riske.
Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan had to rally from a set down and survive a match point in the super tiebreak before completing a 4-6, 6-3, 13-11 victory over Raluca Olaru of Romania and Anna Tatishvili of the US in the first round of the doubles on the grass courts at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
The top seeds saved seven of nine break points and converted two of four, winning 69 of the 134 points contested to wrap up the victory in 1 hour, 26 minutes.
The Taiwanese pairing were due to take on Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic and Peng Shuai of China in the quarter-finals in the final match scheduled for Court 1 yesterday.
In the second round of the singles, Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh fell to a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Riske in 1 hour, 17 minutes.
The American world No. 89 saved three of five break points and converted five of 10, winning 71 of the 126 points contested to improve her career record against the world No. 72 to 2-0 following her victory in the round-of-16 in Shenzhen earlier this year.
Riske was next due to face world No. 97 Anett Kontaveit, who stunned Caroline Wozniacki, dealing the former world No. 1 another setback on the road to Wimbledon.
The 20-year-old Estonian made her second quarter-final of the year with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-5 win over the third-seeded Dane, who missed the clay-court season to nurse a right-ankle injury.
“It was tough losing the first set, but I guess that’s how tennis goes,” Kontaveit said. “Sometimes you win those close points, sometimes you lose them, but you just have to keep fighting. The tactic was to try to put her under pressure, be aggressive. That’s how I play.”
Wozniacki said she was happy her ankle stood up to a three-set examination with Wimbledon just over two weeks away.
“The match was up and down, but she played well, so hats off to her,” Wozniacki said. “At the end of the day, I’m just happy that I’m able to play again. One step in the right direction and from here I’ll just move forward, know what I can work on and hopefully get better. The main thing is that my ankle is holding up, so I’m pleased with that.”
Looking forward to their quarter-final clash today, Riske told the WTA Web site: “She’s had good wins and likes playing on grass, and it’s going to be a tough matchup, but I’m going to try to do my best and we’ll see how it goes.”
In Wednesday’s other second-round matches, top seed Karolina Pliskova saw off Anna Tatishvili of the US 6-1, 6-3 in less than an hour. Tatishvili had defeated Pliskova’s twin sister, Kristyna, on Monday.
Pliskova next plays either Andrea Hlavackova or Ashleigh Barty, who were due to play their second-round match yesterday.
Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig enjoyed a 6-3, 6-0 win over Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito.
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