Rika Fujiwara sent seventh seed Kathrin Woerle tumbling out of the OEC Taipei Ladies Open yesterday. The Japanese world No. 245 defeated her German opponent, ranked more than 100 places above her, 6-3, 6-1 in a match that was more competitive than the scoreline suggests.
Fujiwara canceled out an earlier break of serve in a hard-fought sixth game of the first set that proved to be decisive. Geeing herself up with shouts of “C’mon” she then broke Woerle again in the eighth game before wrapping up the set.
The German handed the first game of the second set to her opponent with a couple of double faults and was broken again in the third game as Fujiwara continued to mix tenacious play with some spectacular winners.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Woerle found herself facing three match points at 0-40 down in game seven, with Fujiwara putting her out of her misery on the first of them with a backhand winner.
Meanwhile, Kristina Mladenovic of France took advantage of the withdrawal of second seed Alla Kudryavtseva, who she was originally due to play, by downing world No. 427 Remi Tezuka 6-3, 7-5. After being outclassed in the first set, Japan’s Tezuka put up a better fight in the second, but Mladenovic was probably relieved to have avoided a clash with 97th- ranked Kudryavtseva.
The Russian’s absence was another blow to the tournament following the earlier withdrawals of original top seed Peng Shuai as well as Kimiko Date-Krumm and Elena Baltacha, who would also have been seeded.
Later yesterday, Taiwanese doubles specialist Chuang Chia-jung beat compatriot Hwang I-hsuan 6-4, 6-1.
There were few signs that it was Chuang’s first singles contest of the year as she struck the ball well and served effectively.
Despite her victory, she told reporters that she was very tired, joking that she preferred doubles as the court didn’t seem so big.
Chuang will team up with former partner Chan Yung-jan in the doubles to prepare for the 2009 East Asian Games, to be held in Hong Kong starting on Dec. 5.
Chan won an all-Taiwanese clash against Hsu Wen-hsin 6-2, 6-2.
Scores from yesterday’s other matches
• Chang Kai-chen (Taiwan) beat Yan Zi (China) 6-0, 6-2
• A Hlavackova (Czech Republic) beat E Sema (Japan) 6-0, 6-3
• A Panova (Russia) beat Hsieh Su-wei (Taiwan) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
• R Kulikova (Russia) beat S Viratprasert (Thailand) 6-2, 6-0
• T Tanasugarn (Thailand) beat A Klepac (Slovenia) 6-3, 6-4
• O Kalashnikova (Georgia) beat V Wongteanchai (Thailand) 6-4, 6-2
• T Yonemura (Japan) beat S Hisamatsu (Japan) 6-2, 6-3
• Kim So-jung (South Korea) beat Chen Yi (Taiwan) 7-5, 6-1
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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