Chuang Chia-jung became the last Taiwanese player standing in the senior level competition of the Australian Open when she and Slovakia’s Filip Polasek made the mixed doubles quarter-final after an upset win over the third-seeded US pair Berthanie Mattak-Sands and Bob Bryan yesterday.
Chuang and Polasek prevailed 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) in tough battle on Melbourne’s Show Court 3, the same court on which Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan was knocked out of the women’s doubles two hours earlier.
Chan and her Romanian partner Monica Niculescu lost 7-5, 6-3 to Lisa Raymond of the US and Australia’s Rennae Stubbs in the third round of the women’s doubles.
Local fans will be looking to the juniors to keep Taiwan in play for the remainder of the competition, as Huang Liang-chi and Juan Ting-fei are still going in the boys’ singles and doubles and girls’ singles.
Huang and Japan’s fourth-seeded Yasutaka Uchiyama beat Vaidik Munshaw of India and China’s Wang Chunan 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) in the junior boys’ doubles first round yesterday.
Juan Ting-fei and China’s Liu Min did not have a good day, as they were crushed by third seeds Tamara Curovic of Serbia and Japan’s Sachie Ishizu 6-0, 6-1 in the girls’ doubles first round.
Huang, the fourth seed in the boys’ singles, is scheduled to meet Australia’s James Duckworth in the boys’ singles second round today, while Juan will meet fifth-seeded Silvia Njiric of Croatia in the girls’ singles second round.
The Taiwanese players in the singles competitions didn’t last long, as Lu Yen-hsun, Chan Yung-jan and Chang Kai-chen all crashed out early in the men’s and women’s singles.
Lu, Taiwan’s top men’s player who currently ranks No. 101, had a disappointing early exit when he lost to Louk Sorensen of Ireland 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.
Lu reached the third round in Melbourne last year, his best finish in a Grand Slam, but this year failed to make it past the first round in the men’s doubles as well.
Chan Yung-jan and Chang Kai-chen, currently ranked 85th and 94th respectively, both lost in the first round singles to higher-ranked players.
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