At the Heineken Open in Auckland, New Zealand, it was a mixed day for Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun yesterday, as he crashed out of the second round of the singles, but returned to maintain his winning start to the season in the doubles.
Ninth seed Lu fell to a 6-2, 6-4 loss in the singles to world No. 61 Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in 1 hour, 21 minutes.
The Taiwanese world No. 46 saved four of seven break-point chances, but failed to convert any of the five he created to crash out after winning only 32 percent of his return points.
Photo: EPA
Lu then returned to the court in the first round of the doubles, looking to maintain his winning run, which saw him and partner Jonathan Marray claim the Chennai Open title in India on Sunday.
The Taiwanese and his Austrian partner Oliver Marach obliged by converting three of four break-point chances to defeat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff and Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Austrian duo next face a quarter-final today against fourth seeds Raven Klaasen and Leander Paes — the duo who Lu and Marray beat in the final in Chennai — after the South African-Indian pairing beat Britain’s Jamie Murray and John Peers of Australia 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 10-6 in their first-round clash.
Photo: EPA
A high rate of attrition among seeded players continued at the Auckland event yesterday, as fifth seed Tommy Robredo of Spain became the fourth seeded player to withdraw without hitting a ball.
World No. 17 Robredo, who had a first-round bye, pulled out of his second-round tie against New Zealand’s Michael Vensu with a hip injury, saying there was a “little bit” of doubt about his fitness.
Robredo’s withdrawal follows those of top seed David Ferrer of Spain and defending champion John Isner of the US, both citing tiredness, and Frenchman Gael Monfils for personal reasons.
On court, second seed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia lost 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to qualifier Jiri Veseley of the Czech Republic, while third seed Robert Bautista Agut of Spain retired while trailing France’s Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 2-1 with an unspecified injury.
Fourth-seeded South African Kevin Anderson bucked the trend when he beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (8/6), 6-1, as did eighth seed Steve Johnson of the US, who reached the quarter-finals after beating Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-7 (7/3), 6-4, 6-1.
Sydney International
Juan Martin del Potro continued his promising return from an 11 month-long injury layoff by beating top seed Fabio Fognini 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 yesterday to reach the quarter-finals of the Sydney International.
The second-round triumph over Fognini further demonstrated the Argentine’s return to top form ahead of next week’s Australian Open.
The former No. 4 needed a wildcard to gain entry to the main draw as his world ranking had dropped to 338 during his lengthy absence. He showed the benefit of concerted preparation by beating Fognini in 1 hour, 48 minutes.
Del Potro next faces Kazakhstan qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin, who upset sixth seed Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 7-5.
Second seed David Goffin of Belgium also suffered a second-round loss, going down 6-3, 6-3 to Italy’s Simone Bolelli, while fourth seed Julien Benneteau of France beat Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Bolelli next faces Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki in the last four, after Troicki eliminated Spaniard Pablo Andujar 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber became the third top seed knocked out yesterday when he fell in straight sets to Australian Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-4.
Tomic is to play Gilles Muller in the quarters after Muller defeated French seventh seed Jeremy Chardy 2-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4.
On the women’s side, Tsvetana Pironkova beat Barbora Zhalavova Strycova 6-4, 6-1 to stay on track to win the tournament for the second straight year as a qualifier.
In the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic crashed out of the quarter-finals after being beaten 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 by Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
The fourth-seeded Taiwanese-Czech duo served up five double faults, while their opponents converted five of nine break-point chances to complete the victory in 1 hour, 15 minutes and set up a semi-final against Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US and India’s Sania Mirza, who defeated second-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-3, 6-3.
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