Unseeded Hsieh Su-wei on Monday pulled off another upset at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham as the Taiwanese world No. 28 stunned world No. 10 Aryna Sabalenka in the first round of the singles.
Hsieh outlasted the Belarussian fifth seed 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/1) on the grass courts at Edgbaston Priory Club in 1 hour, 56 minutes in England’s second city.
The Taiwanese saved one of four break points and converted three of six, winning 71 percent of points on her first serve to claim her fourth victory over a top-10 player this season and the seventh of her career.
Photo: Reuters
“It was not easy because it’s my first match on the grass court. I knew it was going to be really tough, so I just got ready for anything to happen on the court,” Hsieh told the WTA Web site. “It’s not easy because you know she can make any winner from anywhere; serve, return, baseline. She was slicing pretty good. I was surprised. I [said]: ‘OK, I cannot do stable and try to play my stuff,’ so I was doing very good to keep concentrated on my game.”
“I tried to stay cool, smile and say: ‘OK, whatever, anything can happen.’ I just need to be positive and try my best, and it was helping a lot because [it was] against a big player,” she said.
Hsieh next takes on good friend and doubles partner Barbora Strycova, last year’s finalist.
The Czech rallied from a set down to defeat British wild-card Heather Watson 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Johanna Konta also made a seamless transition from clay to grass by easing into the second round with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
Konta was making her first outing since reaching the French Open semi-finals and the seventh seed maintained her fine form to outclass the world No. 20 in 1 hour, 12 minutes.
“I’m so pleased to get started on the grass, this is such a privileged time for the Brits so I’m happy,” Konta said.
World No. 3 Karolina Pliskova also eased into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu.
Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan pulled off an upset in the opening contest of the day, defeating fourth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Svitolina has been struggling with a knee injury of late, but said that she is pain free and fit for Wimbledon in two weeks’ time.
“I feel better, definitely,” she said. “It hasn’t been easy for the past three months I would say, mentally as well. So I’m just happy to be on court playing and without the pain.”
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