The Chan sisters, reunited after Chan Yung-jan’s title-winning partnership with Martina Hingis, crashed out in the first round of the doubles at the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday, while Shelby Rogers rallied in front of her home crowd to advance in the singles.
Third seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan got off to a fast start in the doubles, but were pegged back 1-6, 7-6 (7/2), 10-6 by Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke in 1 hour, 35 minutes.
The German-Czech duo saved five of 10 break points and converted three of seven to improve their career record against the Taiwanese sisters to 2-0 after a victory at the US Open back in 2013.
In the singles, the expressions just kept changing on the face of Rogers as the American tried to figure out the winning moves against Veronica Cepede Royg.
It was back and forth for close to three hours until Rogers prevailed 6-7 (1/7), 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) over the Paraguayan in her hometown. The match carried over from Monday after rain halted play with Rogers trailing.
“Yeah, it was definitely a lot of momentum changes in the match,” Rogers said. “It’s always nice to get that first win on clay, and especially here, you know, in front of that crowd. They were absolutely amazing. That kind of helped me through it.”
Rogers was up two games and two breaks in the third set and twice failed to serve out the match in windy conditions.
“I was thinking that I needed to change what I was doing, because, you know, she raised her level unbelievably,” said Rogers, who first learned to hit a tennis ball on clay. “She didn’t miss a ball in the third set. [It] just came down to that one, like, awkward shot I hit into the wind and was able to get the pass down the line.”
Other first-round winners on the green clay at Daniel Island were 11th seed Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Maria Sakkari, Irina-Camelia Begu, Cagla Buyukakcay, Sara Errani, Fanny Stollar, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Zhang Shuai, Mona Barthel, Russian-born Anastasia Rodionova of Australia, Magda Linette, Daria Kasatkina and Kristina Kucova of Slovakia.
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