Sat, Jan 31, 2015 page20

• Chan’s woes in Melbourne continue

  DJOKOVIC DOWNS WAWRINKA: The Swiss player had to fight hard to win the fourth set, saving three break points, but he foundered in the fifth, not winning a game

  • By Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with agencies, MELBOURNE, Australia
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  Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie of China failed in their attempt to capture the women’s doubles title at the Australian Open yesterday, falling to a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) defeat to Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in 1 hour, 44 minutes at Melbourne Park.

  Earlier, the remaining Taiwanese interest at the first Grand Slam of the season ended when Hsieh Su-wei exited the mixed doubles in the semi-finals.

  Chan and Zheng, the 14th seeds, got off to a flyer in the women’s doubles final at the Rod Laver Arena, breaking Mattek-Sands’ serve in the first game, but Chan could not hold her serve in the second as the unseeded American-Czech pairing fought straight back.

  

  From right to left, Chan Yung-Jan of Taiwan, Zheng Jie of China, Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US pose with their trophies after their women’s doubles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday. Safarova and Mattek-Sands won in straight sets.

  Photo: Reuters

  The turning point in the first set came at 3-3 when the cross-strait duo engineered a break-point opportunity. With a rally still under way, Chan challenged a good call on the baseline, but the outcome showed that the ball just touched the line by the slightest of margins, handing Mattek-Sands and Safarova the momentum, which they duly converted by breaking Chan’s serve at 5-4 to take the first set.

  The American-Czech duo then cemented their advantage by breaking Zheng’s serve at the first opportunity in the second game of the second set, taking a 2-0 lead.

  Chan and Zheng immediately fought back, breaking Mattek-Sands’ serve at the second opportunity in the the third game, before Chan served out to love to square the set at 2-2.

  

  Serbia’s Novak Djokovic hits a return during his men’s singles semi-final match against Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka at the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday.

  Photo: AFP

  The cross-strait duo then broke Mattek-Sands again, converting their fifth break-point chance of the game to take a 4-3 lead. The match then went with serve until Zheng was broken in the 10th game of the set to make it 5-5.

  Both pairings then broke in the following two games to set up a tiebreaker, with Mattek-Sands eventually serving for the match at 6-5 and ripping a backhand down-the-line winner which handed the American-Czech duo their first title.

  It was the third time Chan had claimed a runner-up plate at the Australian Open — she lost the women’s doubles final with fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung in 2007 and the mixed doubles final with Australia’s Paul Hanley in 2011 — and she was close to tears during the presentation.

  “I’d like to thank my partner... I’m very happy to play with her and I really learn a lot from her,” Chan said at the prizegiving ceremony. “This is my third plate from the Australian Open and I really wish in my career, one day, I can hold that trophy up.”

  In the mixed doubles semi-finals, Hsieh and Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay fell to a 7-5, 6-4 defeat to seventh seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Leander Paes of India in 1 hour, 14 minutes.

  Hingis and Paes face Kristina Mladenovic of France and Daniel Nestor of Canada in tomorrow’s final after the third seeds rallied to defeat top seeds Sania Mirza of India and Bruno Soares of Brazil 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 in yesterday’s other semi-final.

  During their match Paes hit an incredible behind-the-back volley in the eighth game when the pair were in the latter stages of a 21-shot rally with Hsieh and Cuevas.

  Hsieh hit a ball to the left of Paes, who was standing near the net, and it seemed destined to be a winner. However, the right-handed Paes flicked his racket behind his back and somehow kept a volley in play during a point that he won with his subsequent shot.

  In the men’s draw, top seed Novak Djokovic ended Stanislas Wawrinka’s title defense with another five-set clash to book a third final showdown with Andy Murray.

  Though not quite the level of their thrilling marathons at the past two tournaments, the grinding 7-6 (7/1), 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 win under the lights of the Rod Laver Arena was riven by tension until the final one-sided set.

  Both players had their chances, with Djokovic fluffing his lines when 2-0 up and closing in on victory in the fourth set.

  Wawrinka clawed his way back, breaking the Serb and saving three break points with some brilliant play before roaring on to force a fifth set.

  Fourth seed Wawrinka had a chance to break Djokovic in the opening game of the decider, but blasted a backhand past the baseline.

  From there he promptly crumbled.

  With Wawrinka double-faulting twice to gift Djokovic the break, the steely-eyed Serb marched on, setting up match point with a searing backhand down the line and closing it out when his opponent struck his 69th unforced error.

  Though having played far from his best tennis, Djokovic will bid to become the first man in the professional era to win five titles at Melbourne Park tomorrow, when he faces Murray, who he defeated in the final in 2011 and 2013.
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