Taiwanese teenager Liang En-shou yesterday crashed out of the quarter-finals of the singles at the Taipei OEC Open, then returned to the court and suffered a narrow defeat in the quarter-finals of the doubles.
Germany’s Sabine Lisicki proved too strong for the 18-year-old as she swept to a 6-4, 6-0 victory in just 49 minutes at the Taipei Arena.
Lisicki, ranked world No. 262, but who has been as high as world No. 12 in 2012, took advantage of Liang’s nine double faults by saving two of three break points and converting five of nine, winning 60 of the 96 points contested.
Liang returned in the final match of the day alongside fellow Taiwanese Lee Ya-hsuan, but the home crowd’s last hope of a Taiwanese triumph this weekend evaporated when they fell to a 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 loss to Indian duo Ankita Raina and Karman Thandi in 1 hour, 24 minutes.
The Indians face third seeds Misaki Doi of Japan and Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in the semi-finals after they defeated Junri Namigata of Japan and Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand 6-3, 6-3 in the earlier quarter-final.
In yesterday’s other singles quarter-finals, second seed Luksika Kumkhum advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Japanese fifth seed Nao Hibino in 57 minutes.
The Thai world No. 81 faced only one break point and converted five of 11, winning 60 of the 95 points contested to improve her career record against Hibino to 2-1.
The second seed faces world No. 211 Bibiane Schoofs after the unseeded Dutch player advanced when her Czech opponent Tereza Martincova had to retire trailing 7-6 (7/3), 3-0 after 56 minutes.
Russian sixth seed Vitalia Diatchenko cruised into the semi-finals with crushing 6-1, 6-0 defeat of Chinese fourth seed Zhu Lin in just 45 minutes.
The world No. 132 did not face a single break point and converted five of nine, winning 52 of the 75 points contested to even her career record with Zhu to 1-1.
The sixth seed faces Lisicki in today’s semi-finals.
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