Comeback queens Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Alexandra Panova ruined Chan Yung-jan’s day at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia yesterday as the Taiwanese player fell at the first hurdle in the women’s doubles.
Chan and Zheng Jie of China seemed to be cruising to victory at the Foro Italico in Rome against the German-Russian duo when they were leading 6-3, 4-1, but the seventh seeds fell victim to a thrilling fightback.
Groenefeld and Panova battled back to 6-6 to force a tiebreaker, which they then comfortably won 7/0.
They then took that momentum into the super tiebreak to complete a 3-6, 7-6 (7/0), 10-7 victory in 1 hour 45 minutes on Court 3.
Groenefeld and Panova saved nine of 15 break-point chances and converted four of five to knock out the cross-strait duo and advance to a second-round clash against Julia Goerges and Silvia Soler-Espinosa after the German-Spanish duo crushed Raquel Kops-Jones of the US and Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-2, 6-1.
Chan’s younger sister, Chan Hao-ching, and her partner, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, were due to take on Vera Dushevina of Russia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain in the final match on Court 4 yesterday.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Flavia Pennetta of Italy were handed a bye into the second round as the second seeds.
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