Taiwanese third seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan yesterday suffered a disappointing start to the season at the Brisbane International, falling to a 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 first-round defeat to Karolina Pliskova and Donna Vekic in 1 hour, 18 minutes.
The Chan sisters, who claimed four doubles titles last season — Hobart, Australia; Doha; Eastbourne, England; and Osaka, Japan — saved 10 of 13 break points and won three of six, but were let down by a second service on which they only won 37 percent of their points as they exited on the opening day of their season.
The Taiwanese sisters will be hoping to get back in the groove next week when they return to Hobart as the defending champions in a field that is set to feature two former world No. 1s — Latisha Chan and Sania Mirza — as well as reigning Australian Open women’s doubles champion Zhang Shuai of China.
Photo: AFP
COCO GAUFF CRUISES
Teen sensation Coco Gauff yesterday started the year in dominant form at the Auckland Classic.
The American was unflustered by two double faults as she negotiated a blustery wind in her opening service game against last year’s semi-finalist Viktoria Kuzmova.
She recovered to hold serve and then immediately broke Kuzmova on her way to taking the first set 6-3, before racing through the second 6-1 to wrap up the match in 61 minutes.
“Playing in the wind was a bit tough. I’m just glad I got through it,” said Gauff, who impressed with four aces, while winning four out of four break points and saving three out of three.
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Amanda Anisimova on Wednesday pulled off a stellar comeback to get the better of Iga Swiatek 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2 and book her spot in the last four of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei won in the doubles at the women’s year-ending event. Making her tournament debut this week, the fourth-seeded Anisimova secured the runner-up spot in the Serena Williams Group behind Elena Rybakina. Rybakina completed round-robin play with a perfect 3-0 record, thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 success against Russian alternate Ekaterina Alexandrova earlier in the day. Anisimova improved her three-set record this season to an impressive
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