Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday battled back from a set down and saved a match point as she ousted former world No. 1 Garbine Muguruza to advance to the second round of the singles at the Pan Pacific Open, while the Chan sisters cruised into the quarter-finals of the doubles in Osaka, Japan.
World No. 33 Hsieh defeated the Spaniard — who topped the women’s rankings in September 2017, but has since fallen to No. 26 — 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-1 in 2 hours, 1 minute to improve her career record over the two-time Grand Slam champion to 2-0 after a straight-sets victory at last year’s Australian Open.
“I know that anything can happen because this is almost the end of the year,” Hsieh told the WTA Web site. “I just want to be more relaxed, going more to my game. Sometimes I lose a little bit of rhythm at the beginning, so I just need to play more games to get the rhythm.”
The Taiwanese saved six of 12 break points and converted six of 11, her six fewer unforced errors making up for the eight double faults she produced against the Spaniard, who has not won a match since beating Elina Svitolina in the third round of the French Open in June.
“First set, [Muguruza] was hitting the ball very hard and I was not expecting a game like this,” Hsieh said. “I was still trying to find a way to get into the match.”
“In the second set, I felt a little bit more rhythm and more stable myself, my personal style,” she said. “It helped me a lot to get into the match and to get more game.”
In the second round today, Hsieh faces Belgian world No. 24 Elise Mertens, who beat Whitney Osuigwe of the US 6-3, 6-1 on Monday.
Hsieh has a 1-1 career record against Mertens after a victory in Tianjin, China, last year was followed by a defeat in Rabat, Morocco.
In the first round of the doubles, second seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Monique Adamczak of Australia and Han Xinyun of China in just 47 minutes.
The Taiwanese sisters saved both break points they faced and converted five of seven, winning 95 percent of points on their first serve and 51 of the 72 points contested.
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