Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei scored a rare double at Wimbledon on Friday, winning matches in both the women’s and mixed doubles to advance to the third round in the two events.
Hsieh, an accomplished doubles player who had never won a women’s doubles match at Wimbledon in four previous tries, teamed up with Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia to oust China’s Zhang Shuai and Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in their second-round encounter.
If Hsieh wins her third-round match, she would become the first Taiwanese women’s doubles player ever to reach the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam event, but to make history, she and Kudryavtseva, seeded 16th this year, will have to overcome the formidable fifth-seeded duo of Liezel Huber and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US.
PHOTO: CNA
Just hours after her victory in the women’s doubles, the 24-year-old and Brazil’s Bruno Soares fought past the experienced Czech duo of Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Philipp Petzschner, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in the second round of the mixed doubles.
Hsieh told Central News Agency that she was very happy with her results at Wimbledon so far this year and that she hoped she could sustain her high level of play and continue to post good results.
Hsieh’s pinnacle as a professional was when she reached the fourth round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open in 2008. Her singles ranking peaked later that year at 78, but she has focused most of her attention since then on doubles.
Also on Friday, Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Filip Polasek of Slovakia lost to the Belgium pair of Kim Clijsters — last year’s US Open women’s singles champion — and Xavier Malisse 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the mixed doubles.
Chuang and Russia’s Olga Govortsova will try to join Hsieh and Kudryavtseva in the third round of the women’s doubles when they play Russians Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva.
In another second round women’s doubles match on Friday featuring a Taiwanese player, 19-year-old Chang Kai-chen and Japanese partner Ayumi Morita were eliminated by Julia Goerges of Germany and Agnes Szavay of Hungary 6-2, 7-5.
Chang felt she was not as aggressive and focused as she needed to be during the match, but overall she was delighted to reach the second round of both the women’s singles and doubles at the world’s premier grass-court tournament.
“I’m satisfied with my performance, but I can do better,” Chang said. “I was really lucky to have a chance to play on Center Court this year, and I hope I can come back to Wimbledon next year and do even better.”
Chang, currently ranked 89th in the world, now has her eyes set on the US Open. She will return to Taiwan for a quick break and then head to Florida to train for the hard-court Grand Slam that begins in late August.
“I love American hard-courts and the US Open is my favorite event. With the experience gained from last year, I have a lot more confidence and technically I’ll be able to prepare better,” she said.
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s women’s singles, defending champion Serena Williams remained on course to retain her title after reaching the fourth round with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova.
Williams has yet to drop a set in the first three matches and she was far too strong for world No. 46 Cibulkova.
The American top seed will face either 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova or Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the next round.
The three-time champion clearly has no intention of expending unnecessary energy in the first week of the tournament. Williams had lost just five games in the previous two rounds at the All England Club — with her victory over Anna Chakvetadze in the second round taking just 49 minutes.
She had won the opening set in both her opening two matches without dropping a game and once again she set out to shatter her opponent’s resolve.
An ace with the first serve of the match and a break of the Cibulkova serve in the following game emphasized Williams’ desire to go for the jugular straight away.
Williams looked impregnable on serve and, with the 21-year-old Cibulkova looking overawed by the occasion, it was no surprise that Williams took the first set in just 18 minutes.
Cibulkova gradually found a little more confidence in the second set and began to at least make Williams break sweat.
The Slovakian fended off match-point as she held serve for 5-5, but Williams was never likely to be held up for long and she broke in the 12th game to seal her path into the second week of the tournament.
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