Chan Yung-jan yesterday kept her bid for a third straight WTA Tour doubles title on track in Strasbourg, France, while fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung on Thursday survived a scare to advance to the semi-finals of the doubles in Nuremberg, Germany.
Chan, who won back-to-back titles in Madrid and Rome alongside Martina Hingis, has been reunited with younger sister Chan Hao-ching this week at the Internationaux de Strasbourg and the Taiwanese top seeds took just 46 minutes to complete a 6-0, 6-1 semi-final victory over Chantal Skamlova of Slovakia and Eva Wacanno of the Netherlands.
The Chan sisters saved six of seven break points and converted all six they created to advance to today’s final, in which they face Australia duo Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua.
In the singles quarter-finals on Thursday, fifth seed and home-crowd favorite Caroline Garcia saved six set points on the way to a 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 victory over Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
“I started really bad the first set, I was down 4-0 after just a couple of minutes,” Garcia told the WTA Web site. “You know in tennis everything can go very fast one way, then very fast in another direction. So I just tried to keep fighting and play point by point.”
Garcia was due to face Daria Gavrilova in the semi-finals after the seventh seed edged an all-Australian clash with Barty 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/5).
“I played her last week in Rome and it was a big fight,” Garcia said of her semi-final opponent.
Another Australian, sixth seed Samantha Stosur, also advanced, beating Spanish fourth seed Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
Stosur was due to face China’s Peng Shuai in the other semi-final after the eighth seed defeated Shelby Rogers of the US 6-0, 6-4.
At the Nuernberger Versicherungscup on Thursday, Chuang and Misaki Doi battled to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 10-6 quarter-final victory over Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia and Nao Hibino of Japan in 2 hours, 1 minute.
The Taiwanese-Japanese duo saved six of nine break points and converted three of 13 to set up a semi-final against American-British pairing Nicole Melichar and Anna Smith late yesterday, with the winners to face Kirsten Flipkens and Johanna Larsson in today’s final after the Belgium-Swedish duo rallied to defeat second seeds Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 1-6, 6-1, 10-8 in their semi-final.
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