Chan Yung-jan celebrated her new doubles partnership with former world No. 1 Martina Hingis with a win at the Qatar Open yesterday, but it was not such a good day for fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung in a rain-hit Doha.
Top seeds Chan and Hingis took just 60 minutes to see off Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Johanna Larson of Sweden 6-1, 6-4.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo failed to save either of the break points they faced, but they converted five of seven to advance to a quarter-final against Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain, who cruised past Madison Brengle of the US and Naomi Broady of Britain 6-1, 6-2.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
Wild-card duo Chuang and Jelena Jankovic of Serbia fought back from a whitewash in the first set to force a super tiebreak against fourth seeds Abigail Spears of the US and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, before eventually falling to a 6-0, 6-7 (2/7), 10-6 defeat in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
In the singles, three players reached the quarter-finals on another rain-affected day which left top seed Anqelique Kerber still waiting to play her first match.
Third seed Dominika Cibulkova, Zhang Shuai and Monica Puig were all able to complete their matches — both Zhang and Puig played two matches on Wednesday — to make their way through to the last eight, but for the rest of the field it was another frustrating day as Qatar continued to suffer some of its worst weather in years.
The continual rain meant that Kerber faced the prospect of playing two matches yesterday if she won her second-round match against Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
The winner of that match was due to face Olympic champion Puig later yesterday.
Of the few matches that were completed, Cibulkova’s clash with Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was the pick.
The Slovakian won 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 and admitted afterward it had been a hard match.
“I knew it’s going to be a tough one, especially now,” Cibulkova said. “She’s in great form. She played quarter-finals in Australian Open. When she’s in good form, it’s going to be really tough.”
Fifth seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain was the biggest casualty of the day, losing to Zhang 6-7 (7/3), 6-3, 5-7.
Like Zhang, Muguruza was playing her second match of the day having earlier breezed past Turkey’s Cagla Buyuakcay 6-3, 6-2.
“I woke up thinking that I was going to have a very tough day,” French Open champion Muguruza said. “I played pretty good the first match ... the second one, I think Zhang played very well. Honestly, the conditions were difficult... There was a lot of wind, [but] she was finding her shots.”
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