Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen had a mixed day at the Heping Sports Complex in Taipei yesterday as she crashed out of the second round of singles, before returning to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Taiwan Open.
In the second round of the singles, world No. 273 Chang fell to a 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) loss to fifth seed Yulia Putintseva in 1 hour, 46 minutes, despite rallying from 5-1 down in the second set to force a tiebreak.
Chang saved 12 of 17 break points, but it was not enough as the Kazakh world No. 51 advanced to a quarter-final against Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine, who rallied from a set down to defeat China’s Duan Yingying 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Chang then found herself a set down in the doubles alongside fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung and had to fight back once again, finally edging Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand and Prarthana Thombare of India 2-6, 6-3, 10-2 in 68 minutes.
The Taiwanese duo saved three of six break points and converted both break points they created to set up a quarter-final against third-seeded Ukrainian twin sisters Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok, who ousted Taiwanese wild-cards Chan Chin-wei and Liang En 6-2, 6-4 in 69 minutes.
Also exiting in the first round were Taiwanese duo Hsu Ching-wen and Lee Ya-hsuan, who fell to a 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Eri Hozumi and Junri Namigata in 1 hour, 26 minutes.
The Japanese duo saved three of four break points and converted three of seven to set up a quarter-final against top seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching.
In the other second-round singles matches, Romania’s Monica Niculescu upset sixth seed Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-0, 1-6, 6-4 to set up a quarter-final against Sabine Lisicki of Germany, who defeated Nao Hibino of Japan 6-4, 6-1 in 69 minutes.
In the remaining first-round matches, fourth seed Babos, the highest-ranked player left in the singles draw, defeated Arina Rodionova of Australia 6-3, 6-2 and Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia routed fellow qualifier Lizette Cabrera of Australia 6-0, 6-1 in just 49 minutes.
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