Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching on Saturday was eyeing her second doubles title of the season when she advanced to the final of the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, England.
Chan and Zhang Shuai took just 59 minutes to see off US duo Raquel Atawo and Christina McHale 6-2, 6-3 in their semi-final on the grass courts at the Edgbaston Priory Club.
The Taiwanese-Chinese pairing did not face a single break point on their serve and converted four of eight to advance to the final against Australian fourth seeds Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua, who were handed a walkover in their semi-final against Sania Mirza of India and Coco Vandeweghe of the US.
Photo: Reuters
Chan claimed her first title of the season when she won the Taiwan Open with elder sister Chan Yung-jan in Taipei in February.
Meanwhile, Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez on Saturday helped banish the memory of one of his most painful defeats when he beat Grigor Dimitrov to set up an Aegon Championships final against Marin Cilic in London.
Three years after failing to convert a match point in the Queen’s Club title match against the Bulgarian, the 35-year-old left-hander avenged that loss with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory.
However, if he is not to fall short for a second time he will have to produce his best tennis against a fired-up Cilic who overcame Luxembourg’s in-form Gilles Muller.
Fourth seed Cilic, bidding for a repeat of the title he won in 2012, dropped serve for the first time all week, but recovered quickly to win 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, ending veteran Muller’s seven-match winning streak on grass.
Lopez capitalized on a run of Dimitrov errors in the first set to break before holding serve with ease.
A rain delay midway through the second set broke his rhythm though and Dimitrov seized his chance.
Lopez was comfortably the better player in the decider, though, as he moved through to the final.
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