Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the quarter-finals of the Tianjin Open, despite putting up a fight against third seed Belinda Bencic.
World No. 160 Hsieh rallied after losing the first set to take the match to a deciding third against the Swiss world No. 35, but she finally fell to a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 defeat in 1 hour, 49 minutes, the day after her marathon 2 hour, 31 minute victory over China’s Zhang Shuai.
Hsieh converted four of eight break-point chances, but it was not enough, even with her opponent serving up six double faults.
Photo: AFP
Bencic faces Hsieh’s doubles partner Peng Shuai of China in the semi-finals after the world No. 22 and second seed defeated eighth seed Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 7-5.
Sixth seed Alison Riske won the bragging rights in an all-American quarter-final as she downed fourth seed Vavara Lepchenko 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in 1 hour, 53 minutes to set up a semi-final against China’s Zheng Saisai, who defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in 2 hours, 8 minutes.
In the doubles semi-finals, Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Xu Yi-fan of China, the No. 4 seeds, were knocked out by second seeds Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia.
Chan and Xu saved two of the four break-point chances they faced and converted two of three, but it was not enough as they fell to a 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 defeat in 1 hour, 26 minutes.
In the final, Kudryavtseva and Rodionova are to face either Riske and Tomljanovic or Cirstea and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia, who play their semi-final today.
JAPAN WOMEN’S OPEN
Top-seeded Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan crashed out of the doubles semi-finals at the Japan Women’s Open in Osaka yesterday after a straight-sets defeat.
The Chan sisters converted only two of 12 break-point chances against Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic and they fell to a disappointing 6-4, 6-3 loss in 1 hour, 19 minutes.
The other semi-final is between the winners of yesterday’s quarter-final matches, which saw fourth seeds Darija Jurak of Croatia and Megan Moulton-Levy of the US defeat Japanese wild-cards Kyoka Okamura and Kotomi Takahata 6-3, 7-5, while Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and Tatjana Maria of Germany beat Japanese sisters Erika and Yurika Sema 6-4, 7-5.
In the quarter-finals of the singles, top seed Samantha Stosur of Australia defeated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-1 to set up a semi-final against third seed Evina Svitolina of Ukraine, who beat Lauren Davis of the US 6-2, 6-4.
In the other half of the draw, fifth seed Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan defeated Croatia’s Ana Konjuh 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2 to set up a semi-final against Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum, who was leading second seed Madison Keys of the US 6-2, 4-3 when the American retired.
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