Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China, Italian duo Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, and Russian pairing Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who have won seven of the past eight women’s doubles Grand Slams, were all beaten in super tiebreakers on a day of upsets at the Western & Southern Open on Thursday.
Second seeds Hsieh and Peng were up a set and 4-2 against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic and they won eight more points than they lost, but their opponents won seven of the last eight points in their 3-6, 7-5, 10-5 second-round triumph.
Hsieh and Peng converted four of seven break-point chances, but they could only save one of five as they crashed out in 1 hour, 27 minutes, while their opponents go on to face seventh-seeded US duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, who crushed their compatriots Melanie Oudin and Taylor Townsend 6-3, 6-1.
Probably the biggest surprise was sixth seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France pulling off a 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 quarter-final defeat of top seeds Errani and Vinci, after the duo only managed to win four games in their previous encounter with the Italians in the Wimbledon final last month, while the Italians were on an 11-match winning streak.
After each pairing won a lopsided set, Babos and Mladenovic held steady in the super tiebreaker, winning the last two points from 8-8 to seal the victory in 1 hour, 9 minutes, and they are now the highest seeds left in the competition.
The most dramatic match of the day saw Spanish duo Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro overcome three match points in the super tiebreaker of their 7-6 (7/1), 1-6, 12-10 second-round victory over fifth seeds Makarova and Vesnina.
There was also another upset when Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova beat fourth seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Sania Mirza of India 6-3, 6-3 to set up a quarter-final with eighth seeds Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia after they cruised past Marina Erakovic of New Zealand and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-3, 6-2 in an hour.
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