Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis survived a huge scare to keep their bid for back-to-back doubles titles on track at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Wednesday, while top seed Angelique Kerber was not so fortunate, losing her opening match at the Foro Italico to Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit.
Second seeds Chan and Hingis rallied from a set down against Nao Hibino of Japan and Alicja Rosolska of Poland to edge a tight second-round contest 4-6, 7-5, 11-9 in 1 hour, 38 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved three of six break points and converted three of six, winning 75 of the 144 points contested to advance to the quarter-finals in Rome.
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The second seeds are looking for a third title as a pairing and the second in a week after they triumphed at the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday.
In the women’s singles, world No. 1 Kerber fell to a shock 6-4, 6-0 loss to Kontaveit.
Kerber joined Andy Murray, the men’s world No. 1, on the sidelines after Murray’s loss to Fabio Fognini on Tuesday.
“Everybody knows I’m not a clay-court specialist,” Kerber said. “I was not playing good last year as well. I had a great year, but I mean, these few weeks I was not playing good and this year it’s the same.”
In the men’s singles, Rafael Nadal hardly had to get his socks dirty extending his winning streak to 16 matches.
Back to being the best player on the ATP Tour over the past month, Nadal advanced from his opening match when Nicolas Almagro retired in the first set with an apparent injury.
Nadal has won consecutive clay-court tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid.
Also on Wednesday, Olympic silver medalist Juan Martin del Potro defeated Britain’s Kyle Edmund 7-5, 6-4; fifth seed Milos Raonic defeated German veteran Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-3; and 16th seed Alexander Zverev beat Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4 and was due to face Italian Fabio Fognini.
“The stadium will be very loud for him. I’m very sure about that,” Zverev said of Fognini. “It’s going to be a fun day, a fun atmosphere and great match.”
Nadal was to face 13th seed Jack Sock, who beat Jiri Vesely 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/1) after more than two-and-a-half hours.
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