Chan Yung-jan’s fairy-tale hometown run at the OEC Taipei WTA Challenger continued yesterday in the semi-finals of both the singles and the doubles at the Taipei Arena.
The Taiwanese world No. 212 upset the odds once again in her singles match against top-seeded world No. 87 Anna-Lena Friedsam, beating the German 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to grab a spot in today’s final.
Chan saved eight of the 11 break-point chances the top seed created and converted five of her six to wrap up the victory in 2 hours to the delight of the home fans.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Chan is due to face world No. 108 Vitalia Diatchenko in the final after the other semi-final also went the distance, with the sixth-seeded Russian eventually coming out on top 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 against Romanian qualifier Ana Bogdan.
Diatchenko saved seven of 13 break-point chances and converted seven of eight to grab a spot in the final in 2 hours, 16 minutes.
Chan returned to Center Court later yesterday with younger sister Hao-ching in the semi-finals of the doubles and the fairy-tale week continued as the top-seeded Taiwanese sisters routed fourth seeds Hsieh Shu-ying of Taiwan and Xu Yi-fan of China 6-2, 6-1.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Hsieh and Xu struggled to return Chan Yung-jan’s serves as the sisters saved the one break-point chance they faced and converted five of 10 to complete the victory in 58 minutes.
That set up a crowd-pleasing all Taiwanese final after Chang Kai-chen and Chuang Chia-jung defeated second seeds Ariana Rodionova of Australia and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 5-3, 7-5 in the earlier semi-final.
The Chang-Chuang duo, who produced six aces, saved six of seven break-point chances and converted three of seven to complete the victory in 1 hour, 12 minutes.
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