Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the second round of the Malaysian Open singles on another rain-hit day at the Royal Selangor Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Hsieh outlasted her doubles partner, Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a three-setter interrupted by a rain break.
World No. 126 Hsieh saved 12 of 18 break-point chances and converted six of 11 against the Australian ranked 302 in the world in a match that lasted 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Hsieh was trailing 1-5 in the first set when the match was interrupted by rain, but she bounced back to take the second and third sets and set up a second-round match with either top seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia or Turkish qualifier Pemra Ozgen.
While Hsieh seemed to benefit from the rain delay, fellow Taiwanese Chan Yung-jan found that it had the opposite effect.
Chan was leading seventh seed Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-3, 3-1 when the rain came, but the Croat rallied upon their return to the court to take the match 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 and set up a second-round clash with Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who cruised past Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 6-2, 6-2.
Also in the first round yesterday, Italian qualifier Giulia Gatto-Monticone finally won her first match on the WTA Tour, defeating Tunisian Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
“Malaysia now holds a special place in my heart,” she told the tournament Web site. “I have been trying for a long time to win a match on the Tour and I finally did it here.”
Gatto-Monticone next faces Kazakh sixth seed Zarina Diyas, who defeated wild-card Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 6-2, 6-2.
In other first-round matches, Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine shocked eighth seed Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-4, 6-2; Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic beat Timea Babos of Hungary 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-4; Magda Linette of Poland cruised past France’s Alize Lim 6-3, 6-0; and China’s Duan Yingying downed Ana Vrljic of Croatia 6-3, 6-2.
Today in the doubles, third seeds Hsieh and Gajdosova are set to complete their first-round match against Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Rika Fujiwara of Japan which they lead 6-3, 4-4.
Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Xu Yi-fan of China are also due to complete their match with Japanese duo Erika Sema and Yurika Sema which they lead 6-3, 3-2.
The winners of those two matches are then scheduled to play a quarter-final later today.
Top seeds Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and Babos are set to take on Krunic and Vrljic in the first round.
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