Chuang Chia-jung came down to earth with a bump yesterday, a day after pulling off a shock win against second seed Hsieh Su-wei at the OEC Taipei Ladies’ Open.
The 23-year-old from Kaohsiung lost in straight sets in her second-round singles clash to Japan’s Kumiko Iijima, but bounced back later on, teaming up with Hsieh in the doubles to defeat Jarmila Gajdosova and Jessica Moore 7-6(4), 6-4.
Chuang’s singles ranking has slipped from 177 to 477 since she decided to concentrate on doubles two years ago, but she wants to boost her singles ranking again. Her modest goal before the tournament was to win one at least one singles match.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Joining Iijima in the last eight of the singles was Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen, who dispatched her compatriot Hwang I-hsuan 6-4, 6-3.
“My coach wanted me to put in a good performance, not to win the match,” Chang, 17, said.
Although she is usually coached by her father, for this tournament Chang said he had hired an American coach who has stressed he would rather see Chang play well and lose than play badly and win.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
After her singles triumph, Chang teamed up with Chan Chin-wei in a doubles match to breeze past sisters Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching 6-1, 6-2.
In other singles matches yesterday, sixth-seeded Slovakian Gajdosova beat Japan’s Tomoko Yonemura 6-2, 7-6(7) and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand beat Lenka Tvaroskova 6-1, 6-3.
In the doubles there were wins for Sophie Ferguson and Vanessa Henke, Nikola Fankova and Tvaroskova, Kimiko Date-Krumm and Rika Fujiwara and Taiwanese pair Hwang and Hsu Wen-hsin. The local duo beat Tomoyo Takagashi and Remi Tezuka of Japan 6-0, 6-3.
■ SWISS INDOORS
AFP, BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Roger Federer won his 11th successive match on his home court but had to fight hard to keep a hat-trick of victories at Basel on course at the Swiss Indoors on Tuesday.
The top-seeded local who has won the last two editions was cheered by a sellout crowd at the St Jakobshalle as he labored to defeat US player Bobby Reynolds 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3.
It was his 25th Basel match victory as he played for the ninth time in the city of his birth.
Reynolds made life tough for the top seed, saving a match point in the second-set tiebreaker and then leveling at one set each.
It took a determined Federer to put things right in the third set as he advanced precariously into the second round on his fourth match point in a shade under two hours.
Davis Cup teammates David Nalbandian and Juan Del Potro notched an Argentine double as attention shifted temporarily to Champions League soccer.
Local side FC Basel was to face off against Barcelona featuring Argentine international Lionel Messi in a group match yesterday.
Both Nalbandian and top-seeded hometowner Roger Federer are hoping to be in the stands at the stadium just across the road from the St Jakobshalle.
“I know Messi personally, so I’m sure he would get me a ticket if I asked,” second seed Nalbandian said after polishing off Albert Montanes 6-4, 6-2.
Federer is assured of a VIP seat for the soccer.
Third seed Del Potro, who will also attend the game, advanced over Swiss qualifier George Bastl 6-2, 6-4.
Italy’s Simone Bolelli scored an upset of seventh seed Tomas Berdych as the Tokyo champion from earlier this month exited 6-4, 7-5.
■ ST PETERSBURG OPEN
AP, ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko and last year’s finalist Fernando Verdasco won first-round matches at the St. Petersburg Open on Tuesday, while Marin Cilic and Mario Ancic were beaten in upsets.
Davydenko had a break in each set to beat Chris Guccione 6-4, 6-4, and Verdasco rallied to defeat Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Gabashvili won five consecutive games in the first set, but Verdasco broke early in the second set to stay in the match. The third-seeded Spaniard broke decisively in the sixth game of the third set.
Jeremy Chardy of France beat the seventh-seeded Ancic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, while Kazakh qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin saved two match points before ousting the fifth-seeded Cilic 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (6).
After trading breaks early in the third set, the 23rd-ranked Cilic had two match points at 6-4 in the tiebreaker. But the 158th-ranked Kukushkin won four consecutive points to score his first career victory over a seeded player in an ATP event.
Cilic had 19 aces in the match to Kukushkin’s 10.
The 74th-ranked Chardy capitalized on Ancic’s double fault in the fifth game to take the first set.
Ancic, ranked 36th, leveled the match with a break in the eighth game of the second set and had an early break in the decider to go 3-1 up.
Chardy broke back to 3-3 and saved two break points in the ninth game before closing with the second match point on Ancic’s serve.
Two-time former champion Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, seeded fourth, advanced by defeating Ivan Navarro of Spain 6-2, 6-1.
Also, Russian wild card Michail Elgin beat Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-4, 6-4, and Karlis Lijnieks of Latvia rallied to oust Alexandre Kudryavtsev of Russia 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3.
■ GENERALI LADIES
AP, LINZ, AUSTRIA
Fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova and sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli advanced to the second round of the Generali Ladies on Tuesday.
Petrova, who won the tournament in 2005, rallied to beat Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. The 13th-ranked Russian conceded just two points on serve in the final set.
Bartoli improved to 3-5 against Ai Sugiyama by beating the Japanese player 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8). The 17th-ranked Frenchwoman failed to convert five breakpoint chances in the second set, and came back from a break down three times in the third before she finally converted her seventh match point.
Also, Maria Kirilenko beat Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-2, 7-5 to reach the second round. The 30th-ranked Russian, who won her third WTA Tour title of the season last month, was broken in the second set before winning four straight games to close out the match.
■ LYON GRAND PRIX
AP, LYON, FRANCE
Top-seeded Andy Roddick hit 18 aces and did not face a break point in beating Nicolas Mahut of France 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the first round of the Lyon Grand Prix on Tuesday.
Also, second-seeded Richard Gasquet and third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced.
Roddick, who won Lyon in 2005, earned the only break of the match in the second set. Mahut, who also had 18 aces, saved three break points in the first set.
Roddick hurt his knee on Monday while playing doubles but said the injury has healed.
He next plays fellow American Robby Ginepri, who ousted defending champion Sebastien Grosjean of France 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4.
Roddick was already looking forward to next month’s Masters Cup even though he still needs to qualify for the elite 8-man event in Shanghai.
“It’s maybe a more open tournament this year,” he said.
Gasquet rallied to beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (3), while French countryman Tsonga hit 14 aces in a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win over compatriot Marc Gicquel.
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