Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie of China stunned the top seeds in the women’s doubles at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, England, yesterday to advance to the quarter-finals.
The cross-strait duo won the first set of their match against Casey Dellacqua and Sania Mirza on Wednesday, but they had to wait until yesterday to wrap up the victory after rain curtailed play at the Edgbaston Priory Club.
Returning to Court 3, Chan and Zheng finished off a 6-4, 6-2 victory in 1 hour, 9 minutes, saving all four break-point chances they faced and converting three of 10.
Photo: Reuters
The cross-strait pairing won 60 of the 109 points contested against the No. 1 seeds to advance to a quarter-final against either Spanish duo Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja or wild-cards Simona Halep of Romania and Heather Watson of Britain, who were due to play their first-round match later yesterday.
Also due on court later yesterday were Chan’s younger sister, Chan Hao-ching, and her partner Andreja Klepac of Slovenia, who were down 3-1 overnight against second seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France in their first-round match.
In the singles, former world No. 1s Victoria Azarenka and Ana Ivanovic departed on Wednesday, with only Ivanovic confident of being ready for Wimbledon in 11 days.
Azarenka suffered another blow to her chances of reviving her faltering career when she was forced to withdraw with a left-foot injury, while Ivanovic’s title defense was ruined in the second round by Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6).
Azarenka’s foot injury is similar to the ailment which contributed to her fall from the world’s top 20 more than 10 months ago, something which has prevented her from adding to her 17 WTA Tour titles in almost two years.
Although the forceful Belarussian is still only 25, with time in which to rebuild a top-level game which has so far earned her two Grand Slam titles, the latest setback will cast doubt on her chances of doing well at Wimbledon and add to her long-term worries.
Azarenka, nevertheless, tried to put a brave face on it.
“It’s very disappointing for me to make this decision, but I tried to practice and it just doesn’t feel 100 percent,” she said. “I don’t think it is the right time for me to take a risk right now, especially right before Wimbledon, and I need to make sure I have the best preparation possible.”
De Brito appeared to benefit from having played two matches already on grass, often hitting fiercely and with good timing, but Ivanovic seemed to have weathered the storm when she broke serve early in the final set and went to close the match out at 5-4.
However, De Brito played a fine game to break back and thereafter discomforted the champion by swinging more freely. It earned her two match points at 6-4 in the tiebreaker, both of which Ivanovic saved well, only to double fault on the third at 7-6 down to lose her title.
“So many times I tried to do too much because I felt like, OK, it’s fast, I have to do more, instead of just staying calm and executing my shots,” the second seed said.
Eugenie Bouchard, the Canadian who reached the Wimbledon final last year, became the seventh of the 16 seeds to fall when she was beaten by Mladenovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.
“I felt very frustrated, but they told us that if we smack our rackets on the court we would get a huge fine — so perhaps that’s why I kept my cool,” Bouchard said.
Big-serving German Sabine Lisicki blasted 27 aces in her second-round triumph over Belinda Bencic, a new record for a WTA Tour tournament.
Former Wimbledon finalist Lisicki hit 16 aces in the first set and 11 more in the second to enter the record books for most aces in one match.
“It’s nice to have another record,” said the 25-year-old after her 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) win over the Swiss teenager.
Before Wednesday, Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi hit 24 aces in a match in Tokyo in 2008, while Serena Williams also unleashed 24 in a match at Wimbledon in 2012.
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