The Chan sisters yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Brisbane International, while in the men’s singles Kei Nishikori and Grigor Dimitrov advanced to the quarter-finals at the Queensland Tennis Centre.
Fourth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan advanced with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Kristina Mladenovic of France and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan in 65 minutes.
The Taiwanese duo saved two of three break points and converted five of nine, winning 67 percent of their points on second serve, compared with their opponents’ 26 percent conversion rate.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
The Chan sisters won 63 of the 103 points contested to be the first pairing to advance to the semi-finals, where they are to face the winner’s of the quarter-final that pits second seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Xu Yifan of China against Eri Hozumi of Japan and Alicja Rosolska of Poland.
In the men’s singles, Nishikori and Dimitrov had straight-sets wins to set up a rematch of the 2017 final in the quarter-finals.
Second seed Nishikori broke at love in the 11th game to seize momentum in a 7-5, 6-2 win over Denis Kudla in the second round, his season-opening match after getting a first-round bye.
“Tough match,” Nishikori said. “After 5-5 I think he dropped a little bit his level and I started playing better, playing more aggressive and started getting more rhythm, and my serve got better in the second. So yeah, I think it was good first match.”
Sixth seed Dimitrov, who beat Nishikori for the first time in the 2017 final in Brisbane, had to withstand a late comeback from local favorite John Millman before winning 6-3, 6-4.
He had three points for a 5-1 lead in the second set, but was broken as Millman went on a roll before Dimitrov regained control.
Dimitrov said that he was distracted for a while, despite being up two breaks, but “I was not worried to the extent that I was panicking.”
“I managed to keep my composure really good throughout the whole match, especially at 4-4,” he said.
He is using the quarter-final against Nishikori as a barometer for where his preparations stand for the Australian Open, which starts on Jan. 14.
“It’s great. I mean it’s right off the blocks. It’s perfect to play a match like that to kind of see where your game is at, how your movement goes,” Dimitrov said. “Kei is the favorite. Right now he’s been playing unbelievable, great finish of the year, a lot of confidence right now, striking the ball, amazing, feels free, but again, I like my chances. We’ve had quite a few battles against each other. I’m just going to try to control things on my terms.”
Defending champion and eighth seed Nick Kyrgios was ousted 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-3 by Jeremy Chardy a day after saying that his preparation had been hampered by a spider bite last week on his foot.
Chardy next plays Japanese qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama, who upset third seed Kyle Edmund 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.
Fifth seed Milos Raonic advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) win over Miomir Kecmanovic.
In the women’s singles, Anett Kontaveit beat fourth seed Petra Kvitova 7-5, 7-6 (7/1) to advance to the quarter-finals, while Anastasija Sevastova set up a match against US Open champion Naomi Osaka when she beat Harriet Dart 6-2, 6-0.
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