Taiwanese sisters Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching had to battle back after losing the first set to advance to the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open doubles yesterday and set up a showdown with fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung.
The top seeds lost the first set 4-6 to Magda Linette of Poland and Hong Kong’s Zhang Ling, but rallied to defeat their opponents 4-6, 6-4, 10-2 in 1 hour, 28 minutes at the Victoria Park Tennis Stadium.
The Chan sisters struggled with their service game, serving up five double faults, but they saved four of 10 break-point chances and converted an almost perfect six of seven in their first-round match to set up a quarter-final against Chaung and her partner, Junri Namigata of Japan, today.
Photo: AFP
Chuang and Namigata secured their quarter-final berth with a 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) straight-sets victory over China’s Han Xinyun and Petra Martic of Croatia in 1 hour, 23 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Japanese duo saved nine of the 10 break-point chances they faced and converted three of seven.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals were Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria and Arina Rodionova of Australia, who also had to fight back from the loss of the first set to complete a 1-6, 6-3, 11-9 victory over fourth seeds Janette Husarova of Slovakia and Zheng Saisai of China.
Mayr-Achleitner and Rodionova face another pair of Taiwanese sisters, former world No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei and Hsieh Shu-ying, in the quarter-finals today.
The other first-round match also featured sisters attempting to claim the inaugural Hong Kong Open title, with Czech duo Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova overcoming Hong Kong pairing Venise Chan and Wu Ho Ching 6-3, 6-4 to set up a quarter-final against Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Xu Yi-fan of China today.
In the only quarter-final to be played yesterday, Chinese duo Wang Yafan and Zheng Jie defeated French pairing Pauline Parmentier and Laura Thorpe 6-2, 6-3.
In the singles, top seed Sabine Lisicki kept her cool on a searing night to power past Grace Min 6-1, 6-1 and into the quarter-finals.
Lisicki had spent almost two-and-a-half sapping hours on court the previous night in getting past Romania’s Monica Niculescu in three sets, but was in a big hurry 24 hours later.
The German sealed the second-round victory over her US opponent in just 40 minutes as the mercury nudged 33?C.
The world No. 31 now has a day off before playing China’s Zheng Sasai tomorrow for a place in the last four after the Chinese player ousted sixth seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in the biggest upset of the day.
Former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy reached the quarter-finals when her veteran opponent, 44-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan, was forced to retire at 4-0 down in the second set with a shoulder injury.
In the other second-round match, Australian qualifier Jarmila Gajdosova battled past Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Earlier, second seed Daniela Hantuchova completed the first-round action by brushing aside local wild-card Zhang Ling 6-1, 6-4.
World No. 51 Hantuchova, who is due to meet 20-year-old Alison van Uytvanck of Belgium today, was satisfied with her opening performance, despite suffering in the blazing sunshine and having to leave the court to change her kit.
“It was definitely the hottest conditions I have played in and I suppose this was the reason why my concentration slipped a little bit at the start of the second set,” Hantuchova said.
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