Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday crashed out of the second round of the singles at the Qatar Open, before returning to the hard courts to be dumped out of the first round of the doubles in a super tiebreak.
World No. 31 Hsieh fell 6-2, 6-4 to world No. 132 Karolina Muchova in 69 minutes at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
The Czech 22-year-old saved four of five break points and converted four of 10, winning 63 percent of her second serves to advance to a quarter-final against Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina.
Photo: Reuters
Hsieh then partnered another Czech, Barbora Strycova, in the first round of the doubles, and the second seeds fell to a shock 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 defeat to unseeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
In other singles matches, top seed Simona Halep eased into the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.
Fresh from helping Romania reach their first Fed Cup semi-final, Halep made a blistering start by racing into a 5-0 lead in the opening set.
She held off a brief challenge from Tsurenko in the second set, before reeling off the final five games of the match to improve her head-to-head record against her opponent to 6-0.
World No. 3 Halep, who received a bye in the opening round, was next due to face ninth seed Julia Goerges.
The German battled past American lucky loser Alison Riske 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 in a marathon encounter, recovering from 4-2 down in the final set.
Svitolina began her campaign with a 6-4, 6-4 win over 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko, avenging her two previous losses to the Latvian.
A neck injury has hampered the Ukrainian, who was playing her first match since the Australian Open quarter-final defeat by eventual champion Naomi Osaka of Japan last month.
“I have been struggling since the Australian Open with my neck,” Svitolina said. “It depends ... on the practice, on the match, what I have, so it’s tough to tell how I’m going to feel tomorrow, but every single day I try to get a treatment, I try to get some work done and, you know, it’s just a process.”
There were moments in the match when Ostapenko was unplayable as she unleashed aggressive forehands from the baseline to recover from early breaks of serve in both sets, but Svitolina maintained her service rhythm to ensure she controlled the match in the critical moments and went on to convert five break points en route a convincing victory.
“The ball is flying and the wind is very tricky, so I had to be extremely quick with my feet. In the end I was very pleased that I could finish in two sets,” Svitolina said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Czech Karolina Pliskova was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to a viral illness.
The 2017 Doha champion is the fifth withdrawal since the draw was made, a list that includes Danish sixth seed Caroline Wozniacki (viral illness) and France’s Caroline Garcia (leg injury).
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