Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Taiwan Open in Taipei, while Chinese top seed Peng Shuai crashed out of the first round of the singles.
Top seeds Chan and Timea Babos had to rally from a set down against Anna Blinkova of Russia and Magda Linette of Poland to complete a 3-6, 6-0, 10-5 victory in 68 minutes at the Heping Sports Complex.
The Taiwanese-Hungarian duo saved six of nine break points and converted four of nine, winning 58 of the 106 points contested.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Chan is defending the title she won at the Taipei Arena last year with elder sister Latisha Chan, while Babos is playing her first tournament since winning the doubles at the Australian Open last week alongside Kristina Mladenovic.
The top seeds next face a quarter-final against either Taiwanese wild-cards Hsu Ching-wen and Lee Ya-hsuan or Japanese pairing Eri Hozumi and Junri Namigata.
In the singles, Chinese world No. 31 Peng fell to a shock 6-4, 6-1 defeat to Ana Bogdan in 73 minutes.
The Romanian world No. 89 saved the only break point she faced and converted four of 13 to set up a second-round clash with Canadian wild-card Eugenie Bouchard, who defeated Zhu Lin 1-6, 7-5, 2-0 when the Chinese player retired injured.
Also exiting was Australian third seed Samantha Stosur, who fell to a 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 defeat to Nao Hibino in 1 hour, 31 minutes.
The Japanese world No. 93 saved two of three break points and converted all three she created to set up a second-round match against Sabine Lisicki of Germany, who took 2 hours, 41 minutes before eventually seeing off Chinese qualifier Zhang Yuxuan 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7/3).
Seventh seed Linette had a much easier passage to the second round, taking just 66 minutes to defeat another Chinese qualifier, Han Xinyun, 6-2, 6-0 and set up a clash with Swedish world No. 83 Johanna Larsson, who defeated China’s Lu Jingjing 6-3, 6-1.
French eighth seed Pauline Parmentier rallied from a set down to defeat Kurumi Nara of Japan 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 and advance to a second-round match against China’s Wang Yafan, who beat Risa Ozaki of Japan 6-2, 6-4.
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