Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei defeated a Chinese opponent to win the women’s singles championship at the Ningbo International Challenger tennis tournament on Saturday, while compatriot Chang Kai-chen and her Japanese partner won the doubles.
Hsieh, who finished the summer in somewhat disappointing form by losing in the first round of the women’s singles at both the London Olympic Games and the US Open, beat Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-2 to win the US$100,000 lower-tier event in the eastern Chinese city.
The 150 ranking points the world No. 61 earned with the victory will likely move her ranking to below her previous career best of 54th, set in late July.
The 26-year-old Hsieh posted a picture of herself with the trophy on her Facebook page and asked for “applause, please.”
Her goal for the rest of the season, which will be played mostly in Asia, is to get inside the top 50 in the world, she said.
Also on Saturday, Chang and Shuko Aoyama of Japan won the doubles by defeating China’s Zheng Saisai and Tetiana Luzhanska of the US 6-2, 7-5.
Six Taiwanese men played in the men’s singles.
World No. 59 Lu Yen-hsun, seeded No. 1, pulled out in the quarters with an injured left wrist.
Third seed Jimmy Wang, fifth seed Yang Tsung-hua and unseeded Huang Liang-chi all lost in the first round, while unseeded Yi Chu-huan had one of his best performances in a long time in reaching the quarter-finals.
Eighth seed Chen Ti had the best showing of the Taiwanese, reaching the semi-finals before losing to eventual winner Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 6-3, 6-2.
The semi-final finish will give the 28-year-old his best career ranking, somewhere in the 220s.
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