Taiwan is guaranteed a participant in the Malaysian Open doubles final on Sunday after both the Chan sisters earned semi-final spots at the Royal Selangor Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Elder sister Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Saisai of China cruised past Hsieh Shu-ying of Taiwan and Arina Rodionova of Russia 6-0, 6-1.
The fourth seeds saved all four break-point chances they faced and converted five of seven in a quarter-final that lasted only 40 minutes to set up a semi-final showdown with Ukrainian duo Lyudmyla Kichenok and Olga Savchuk, who shocked second seeds Darija Jurak of Croatia and Megan Moulton-Levy of the US 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 in the late quarter-final yesterday.
Younger sister Chan Hao-ching and Timea Babos of Hungary, the top seeds in Kuala Lumpur, had to work a little harder to overcome Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and Poland’s Magda Linette 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
While Daniilidou and Linette sent down five double faults, Chan and Babos saved one of four break-point changes and converted five of nine to set up a semi-final clash with Hsieh Shu-ying’s elder sister, Hsieh Su-wei, ranked the No. 2 doubles player in the world, and Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia.
In the second round of the singles, Hsieh Su-wei crashed out 6-1, 6-2 to top seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, who won her WTA Tour-leading 22nd match of the year, while second seed Zhang Shuai of China defeated Hong Kong’s Zhang Ling 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.
Cibulkova stormed through the first set and broke early in the second, eventually building a 6-1, 2-0 lead, then just like in her first-round match against Pemra Ozgen, she had a slight hiccup — Hsieh won two games in a row to make it 2-2, but just like in that first-round match, the No. 1 seed bounced back, winning four games in a row.
However, there was some drama at the end of the match. Serving for the match at 5-2, Cibulkova needed nine match points to finally close out a stubborn Hsieh in a marathon eight-deuce final game.
In yesterday’s other second-round singles matches, third seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic defeated Duan Ying-ying of China 6-1, 6-3; seventh seed Donna Vekic of Croatia beat Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic 1-6, 6-3, 7-5; and Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey downed Tadeja Majeric of Slovenia 6-4, 6-4.
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
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