Eighth-seeded Chan Yung-jan (
Chan outplayed Slovakia's Jarmila Gajdosova 6-1, 6-2 in the second round, while Kirilenko smashed out fellow Russian Ekaterina Ivanova 6-1, 6-4.
Chan's supremacy over Gajdosova resulted in three service breaks in the second, fourth and sixth games of the opening set after she conceded the first point. Two more breaks secured Chan the second set and a place in the quarter-finals.
Ivanova, who came through a qualifying event, could only win the third game of the opening set against Kirilenko, who forced service breaks in the first, fifth and seventh games.
Kirilenko faced a stiffer challenge in the second set when Ivanova effected a service break in the third game, but fancied Kirilenko broke back in the sixth and 10th games to clinch the set.
Unseeded Tzipora Obziler from Israel also made the quarter-finals when she rallied from a first-set deficit to prevail 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 against Casey Dellacqua of Australia.
Second-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia started with a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Poland's Marta Domachowska in the first round.
Seventh-seeded Flavia Pennetta from Italy defeated Indian wild card Tara Iyer 6-3, 6-1.
In other first round fixtures, Britain's Anne Keothavong beat Italian Sara Errani 6-4, 6-4 and Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine posted a 6-3, 6-3 win against Australian Monique Adamczak.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
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