Reigning Wimbledon champions Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova yesterday began their season with a victory in the first round of the doubles at the Brisbane International, while in the singles eighth seed Madison Keys led a trio of Americans through to the quarter-finals.
Taiwan’s Hsieh bounced back from a 6-4, 6-1 defeat to Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in the first round of the singles on Tuesday by teaming up with her Czech partner and defeating Australian duo Priscilla Hon and Storm Sanders 6-3, 6-4 in 68 minutes at the Queensland Tennis Centre.
The top seeds saved two of three break points and converted three of eight, winning 81 percent of their points on first service to advance to the quarter-finals of the opening tournament of the year.
Photo: AFP
World No. 4 Hsieh and world No. 1 Strycova, who claimed four doubles titles last season — Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Madrid; Birmingham and Wimbledon, England — next face unseeded Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia and Sloane Stephens of the US in 56 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Czech duo will fancy their chances of picking up their first trophy of the season after Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands yesterday defeated the only other remaining seeds in the draw — Nicole Melichar of the US and Xu Yifan of China — 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
In the singles, Keys beat the former US Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-5, 6-3 to reach the last eight, her best result in Brisbane in four attempts.
She next plays fellow American Danielle Collins in the quarter-finals after the world No. 27 thrashed Kazakh qualifier Yulia Putintseva 6-1, 6-0 to continue her blistering start to the season.
Collins demolished world No. 5 Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-1 in the first round and has lost only three games in two matches, spending just 114 minutes on court over two rounds.
“It’s going to be tough,” Keys said of her quarter-final opponent. “She’s playing incredibly well, and really ripping and going for shots, and she’s making pretty much all of them right now.”
The third American through on a day when only three singles matches were played was Alison Riske, who downed Strycova 6-3, 6-4.
Riske is to take on either second seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic or Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in the quarter-finals.
Pliskova and top seed and world No. 1 Barty, who had first-round byes, play their opening matches today.
SHENZHEN OPEN
Two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza yesterday defeated Shelby Rogers of the US to avoid becoming the latest big name to exit the Shenzhen Open.
The former world No. 1 from Spain won 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) to reach the quarter-finals in southern China, where she next faces Russia’s Anna Blinkova or Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan.
AUCKLAND CLASSIC
Wildcard Eugenie Bouchard of Canada yesterday showed that she might have turned a corner as she attempts to resurrect her career with victory over eighth seed Caroline Garcia, while Alize Cornet beat world No. 15 Petra Martic at the Auckland Classic.
Serena Williams of the US and Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki also breezed into the doubles semi-finals after they thumped top seeds Caroline Dolehide of the US and Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-2, 6-1 in just 52 minutes.
Wozniacki and Williams, who are friends off the court, have teamed up to play as a doubles pairing for the first time before Wozniacki retires after the Australian Open.
Both play their second-round singles matches today.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova is to be awarded a wild card to play in this month’s Australian Open, the organizers of the year’s first Grand Slam said yesterday.
The 32-year-old Russian is ranked 147th in the world after a season in which a long-standing shoulder injury restricted her to eight tournaments.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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