Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Tuesday cruised into the semi-finals of the doubles at the BNP Paribas Open, while in the round-of-16 of the singles, Caroline Wozniacki suffered another exit at the hands of rising Russian star Daria Kasatkina.
Unseeded Hsieh and Barbora Strycova, playing in their first tournament together, took just 60 minutes to see off the challenge of Vania King of the US and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-4, 6-1.
The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved five of six break points and converted five of 11, winning 55 of the 94 points contested to advance to a semi-final against third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Xu Yifan of China, who won their quarter-final against eighth seeds Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain in extraordinary circumstances.
Photo: AFP
The eighth seeds thought they had won the match 10-8 in the super tiebreak when a lob was called in, even shaking hands with Xu at the net, even though Dabrowski had challenged the call.
The replay looked inconclusive — until it zoomed in close and showed that the ball was out by the tiniest of margins.
Once the umpire explained the decision to the players amid all the confusion, the point was replayed and the third seeds saved the match point, before going on to claim a 7-6 (9/7), 5-7, 12-10 victory in 1 hour, 57 minutes.
In the singles, 20-year-old Kasatkina, who has beaten all four reigning Grand Slam champions in the past year, continued her giant-killing form with a 6-4, 7-5 shock victory over world No. 2 Wozniacki.
Kasatkina recorded her second straight win over Wozniacki, having also beaten the Australian Open champion last month in St Petersburg, Russia.
“I’m playing my best matches against the best players, but if you want to be on the top, you have to beat the top players. So quite a simple rule,” Kasatkina said.
The Russian improved to 11-6 on the WTA Tour this season as she seeks to better her quarter-final appearance in Indian Wells in 2016.
Kasatkina hit one ace, won 54 percent of her first serves and broke Wozniacki’s serve six times in the 1 hour, 40 minute match.
“She outsmarted me today, but, you know, at least I tried, and I tried to do what I thought I needed to do out there today,” Wozniacki said. “I just couldn’t execute as well as I wanted to.”
Kasatkina is next due to play 10th seed Angelique Kerber of Germany, who roared past seventh seed Caroline Garcia 6-1, 6-1.
Romanian world No. 1 Halep breezed through the fourth round with a 7-5, 6-1 win over China’s Wang Qiang, while eighth seed Venus Williams of the US faced a sterner test from Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia, but held on for a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory.
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