Title winners on Saturday, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Chuang Chia-jung kept their winning streaks going in the women’s doubles at the French Open on Wednesday.
Chan and Anabel Medina Garrigues, who won the doubles title at the Nuremberg Versicherungscup on Saturday, cruised into the second round at Roland Garros, defeating Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-1.
The Taiwanese-Spanish duo, who won 60 of the 100 points contested, saved both break-point chances they faced and converted four of five to set up a second-round clash with either Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia or sixth-seeded US duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.
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Chuang, who won the doubles at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in France with Liang Chen of China on Saturday, has teamed up with Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland this week and they had a tougher time getting past Monica Niculescu of Romania and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-4, 6-3.
The Taiwanese-Swiss pairing saved one of the three break-point opportunities they faced and converted five of 12 to set up a second-round match with ninth-seeded Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, who defeated Vera Dushevina of Russia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in their opener.
Should both Chan and Chuang win their second-round matches they would face each other in the third round.
Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Lauren Davis of the US crashed out to 12th seeds Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in the first round yesterday.
Chan and Davis only managed to create two break-point opportunities, one of which they converted, on the way to 6-1, 6-2 defeat in 58 minutes.
In the men’s doubles on Wednesday, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun and Raven Klaasen of South Africa, who were runners-up on Saturday in the men’s doubles at the Geneva Open, put up a brave fight against top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan.
Lu and Klaasen failed to convert any of the three break-point chances they created as they fell to a 7-6 (10/8), 6-2 defeat to the US 16-time Grand Slam doubles champions.
Chan’s elder sister, Chan Yung-jan, was due to start her doubles campaign later yesterday, as were fourth seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Flavia Pennetta. Lu was due to face 15th seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the second round of the singles, while the Chan sisters were due to face off in the first round of the mixed doubles.
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
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