Reigning champion Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the French Open on Monday.
Taiwan’s Hsieh and Flavia Pennetta of Italy defeated Janette Husarova of Slovakia and Paula Kania of Poland 6-3, 7-5 on Court Three at Roland Garros in the third round in Paris.
World No. 10 Hsieh, who won the French Open women’s doubles title last year with Peng Shuai of China, and world No. 12 Pennetta, who is also a Grand Slam champion, having won the Australian Open in 2011 with Gisela Dulko of Argentina, saved four of eight break-point chances and converted seven of 14 in the straight-sets victory.
The fourth seeds won 77 of the 140 points contested to set up a quarter-final against ninth-seeded Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, who knocked out Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 on Sunday.
Should Hsieh and Pennetta advance to the semi-finals, they could find themselves up against their former partners, Sania Mirza of India and Martina Hingis of Switzerland, the top seeds at Roland Garros this year.
In the final match on Court Three on Monday, Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and John Peers of Australia were beaten in the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles 6-4, 6-4 by Zheng Jie of China and Henri Kontinen of Finland.
After facing her younger sister Hao-ching in the opening round of the mixed doubles, Chan Yung-jan was ousted by her women’s doubles partner Zheng in the quarter-finals, with the Chinese-Finnish duo saving two of three break-point chances and converting three of seven to advance to the semi-finals.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
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