Rising Taiwanese tennis star Liang En-shou yesterday cruised into the quarter-finals of the Taipei OEC Open, while Thai second seed Luksika Kumkhum also advanced at the Taipei Arena.
Liang, the 18-year-old reigning Australian Open girls’ singles champion, defeated Greek world No. 160 Valentini Grammatikopoulou 6-3, 6-1 in just 58 minutes.
The Taiwanese world No. 276 saved the only break point she faced and converted four of eight, winning 61 of the 103 points contested to ease into the quarter-finals at the WTA 125k event.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Liang next faces German wild-card Sabine Lisicki, after the world No. 262 ousted Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour, 19 minutes.
Lisicki, who mixed five aces with six double faults, saved six of nine break points and converted five of 11, winning 85 of the 160 points contested.
Liang faces a tough workload today, as she is also scheduled to play in the quarter-finals of the doubles with fellow Taiwanese Lee Ya-hsuan against Indian duo Ankita Raina and Karman Thandi.
In other second-round singles matches, world No. 81 Kumkhum advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Australian lucky loser Lizette Cabrera in 65 minutes.
The second seed saved four of five break points and converted three of six, winning 65 of the 114 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against Japanese fifth seed Nao Hibino.
World No. 119 Hibino defeated South Korea’s Jang Su-jeong 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour, 34 minutes.
The Japanese saved seven of nine break points and converted four of five, winning 74 of the 137 points contested.
Also advancing was Chinese fourth seed Zhu Lin, who won a tough match against Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in 1 hour, 59 minutes.
The world No. 131 next faces Russian sixth seed Vitalia Diatchenko, who rallied from a set down to battle past Chinese qualifier Zhang Yuxuan 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in 2 hours, 17 minutes.
World No. 211 Bibiane Schoofs defeated China’s Xun Fangying 6-4, 6-2 in 66 minutes, despite sending down six double faults.
The Dutch player next faces Czech qualifier Tereza Martincova after the world No. 212 defeated Ivana Jorovic of Serbia 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) in 1 hour, 34 minutes.
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