Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday stunned another former world No. 1 to advance to the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, the world No. 31’s second semi-final of this year.
Hsieh overcame a second-set rally by Czech fourth seed Karolina Pliskova and fought back from 5-1 down in the third set to complete a 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 victory in 1 hour, 59 minutes on Center Court at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.
Pliskova fired down nine aces, but the Taiwanese No. 1 saved nine of 13 break points and converted four of eight, winning 67 percent of points on her first serve to give her a 1-1 career record against Pliskova following a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4) defeat in Miami last year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“[Pliskova] serves really big,” Hsieh said after the victory. “She makes ace almost every game. It was not easy to come back.”
“I say [to] myself: ‘OK, if she [does] not ace me, I hit [the] ball, hit so much harder than before, then she cannot hit a winner,’” Hsieh added.
It was Hsieh’s second consecutive victory over a former world No. 1 after her third-round 5-7, 6-4, 6-0 win over German fifth seed Angelique Kerber on Wednesday.
She is next to face second seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, who defeated Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4, 6-0.
“They haven’t played yet, so I will send my spy to watch [the] match,” Hsieh said after her match, which preceded the Czech’s victory.
In the second round of the doubles late on Wednesday, Taiwanese ninth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan rallied from a set down to outlast Kuzmova and Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 10-3 in 1 hour, 31 minutes.
The Taiwanese sisters saved three of six break points and converted five of 10, winning 77 of the 140 points contested to set up a quarter-final against Darija Jurak of Croatia and Raluca Olaru of Romania.
OPEN 13 PROVENCE
Taiwan’s Hsieh Cheng-peng, who is mourning after the death of his girlfriend, yesterday crashed out of the quarter-finals of the doubles at Open 13 Provence in Marseille, France.
Hsieh Cheng-peng and partner Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia fell to a 6-3, 6-2 defeat to third seeds Ben McLachlan of Japan and Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands in 52 minutes.
The Taiwanese, who is the younger brother of Hsieh Su-wei and won the Wimbledon boys’ doubles title in 2008, learned that his girlfriend, Chang Heng-mien, had been killed on the eve of his first-round match in France on Wednesday.
Chang had just set foot on a crosswalk when a bus allegedly knocked her down and drove over her in front of Chinese Culture University in Taipei’s Shilin District on Tuesday.
Chang was rushed to Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital for treatment, but was declared dead two hours later.
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RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but