Taiwanese second seed Hsieh Su-wei yesterday took just 73 minutes to see off the challenge of Mandy Minella and advance to her fourth WTA Tour quarter-final of the season at the Japan Women’s Open in Hiroshima.
World No. 40 Hsieh, the highest ranked player in the tournament, saved five of six break points and converted four of six, winning 66 of the 113 points contested in a lopsided 6-3, 6-2 victory over the world No. 139 from Luxembourg.
“I was feeling a little bit tight on the court. It was not easy for me to get into the game at the beginning,” Hsieh told the WTA Web site. “I think she was a little bit tight today too … and I’m happy that I was doing better after a few games and started to hit the ball better.”
The Taiwanese No. 1 rallied from 0-40 down in the final game, saving four break points before converting her first match point to advance to a quarter-final against Australian fifth seed Ajla Tomljanovic, who defeated Zhu Lin of China 7-5, 6-4 in 1 hour, 39 minutes on Wednesday.
“I [have] never played Ajla before. I think she’s a great player and I practiced with her a few years ago,” Hsieh said. “She hits the ball great and she serves great, I think it’s going to be a very tough match. I think I need to be a little bit more relaxed for the next match and it will help me to get into it better.”
In yesterday’s other second-round matches, Chinese top seed Zhang Shuai, the world No. 41, defeated Japanese wild-card Nao Hibino 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) and Chinese fourth seed Wang Qiang beat Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand 7-5, 6-3.
Defending champion Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, the sixth seed, rallied from a set down to defeat Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 7-5, while Polish eighth seed Magda Linette ousted Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek 6-5, 7-6 (7/3) and Slovakia’s unseeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova rallied from a set down to defeat Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.
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