Taiwan’s tennis stars had a day to forget at the US Open on Thursday as they failed to win a match between them in singles and doubles competitions.
In the women’s singles Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) proved no match for No. 19 seed Nadia Petrova, who won in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. The Russian dominated the match, wrapping things up in only 67 minutes.
More disappointing was Chan Yung-jan’s (詹詠然) tame exit at the hands of world No. 60 Timea Bacsinszky. The Swiss teen won 6-3, 6-2, despite serving up eight double faults. The day after crashing out of the women’s doubles, Chan failed to win any of her four break points as she went down in 84 minutes.
PHOTO: AP
Lu Yen-hsun’s (盧彥勳) exit from the men’s singles was perhaps the most disappointing result, losing to Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla. After making a disastrous start by winning only one game in the first set, Lu recovered to take the second 6-4. The third set went to a tie-breaker which the world No. 142 from Rome claimed 7-2 before wrapping things up by winning the fourth set 6-4.
It was a far cry from Lu’s gutsy run at the Beijing Olympics as clay court specialist Cipolla, ranked 69 places behind the man from Taipei, earned himself a third round clash with Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Later in the day Lu and Jim Thomas of the US lost to No.1 seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in the men’s doubles.
Chan and Hsieh also suffered doubles defeats. Chan and Austrian Jualian Knowle, seeded four in the mixed doubles, were thrashed 6-3, 6-1 by Aussie pair Casey Dellacqua and Jordan Kerr in only 51 minutes.
Hsieh and Rika Fujiwari of Japan lost in straight sets to Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual and Anabel Medina Garrigues in the women’s doubles putting up a decent fight before going down 7-6, 6-4 to the No. 5 seeds.
Taiwanese hopes of glory in New York now rest with Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) who has teamed up with Canada’s Daniel Nestor in the mixed doubles. The No. 1 seeds were due to play US pair Sloane Stevens and Robert Kendrick in the first round yesterday.
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