The Chan sisters on Sunday advanced to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles at the French Open, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the third round of the women’s doubles.
Unseeded defending champions Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig knocked out eighth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Robert Farah of Colombia 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in their second-round clash in 1 hour, 18 minutes on Court 7 at Roland Garros.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved three of five break points and converted four of five, winning 56 percent of their points on second service to set up a quarter-final against French duo Amandine Hesse and Benjamin Bonzi, who rallied from a set down to defeat Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico 3-6, 7-5, 10-4.
Photo: AP
Sixth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Oliver Marach defeated Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain and Neal Skupski of Britain 6-4, 7-5 in 1 hour, 20 minutes later on Court 7.
The Taiwanese-Austrian duo saved both break points they faced and converted two of three, winning 75 percent of their points on first serve to advance to a quarter-final against Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi of Pakistan, who defeated Darija Jurak of Croatia and Austin Krajicek of the US 6-4, 4-6, 10-7.
In the women’s doubles, third seeds Hsieh and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic were beaten 7-5, 6-1 by Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 7-5, 6-1 in 1 hour, 29 minutes on Court 1.
In the fourth round of the men’s singles yesterday, Novak Djokovic became the first man to reach the quarter-finals for 10 successive seasons, while Kei Nishikori set up the toughest challenge on a clay court — facing Rafael Nadal.
Top seed and world No. 1 Djokovic continued his bid to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously for the second time by thrashing Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
“It was tricky with the rain, but that’s Paris,” the 2016 champion said after playing in drizzly conditions. “I’m really confident with my serve. I hope it continues like that.”
Japanese seventh seed Nishikori came back from 1-4 and 3-5 down in the final set to beat Benoit Paire of France and set up a quarter-final against Nadal.
Nishikori won 6-2, 6-7 (8/10), 6-2, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a shade under four hours.
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