Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei upset the eighth seed to advance to the second round of the singles at the Japan Open yesterday, while the Chan sisters and Chuang Chia-jung were also victorious in the doubles.
Hsieh got off to a flyer against Polona Hercog in Tokyo, converting three of six break points to claim the first set 6-1, but the Slovenian world No. 59 fought back to win a closely contested second.
However, the Taiwanese world No. 113 was not to be denied as she completed a 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 victory in 2 hours, 10 minutes.
Hsieh saved eight of 16 break points and converted 10 of 18, winning 115 of the 216 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with world No. 78 Kurumi Nara of Japan, who defeated Andreea Mitu of Romania 6-1, 6-4.
Also advancing in the singles were Kateryna Bondarenko, who ousted top seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-4, Jarmila Gajdosova, Johanna Larsson, Nao Hibino, Risa Ozaki, Irina Falconi, Zheng Saisai, Magda Linette and second seed Zarina Diyas.
In the doubles, top seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan took just 56 minutes to dispatch Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan and Australia’s Gajdosova 6-3, 6-2.
The Taiwanese sisters saved two of four break points and converted five of six, winning 54 of the 93 points contested to set up a quarter-final against Diyas of Kazakhstan and Nicole Melichar of the US, who defeated Japanese wild-cards Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
Second seeded Chuang and Liang Chen of China cruised past Christina McHale of the US and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 6-1, 6-2 in just 49 minutes.
The cross-strait duo saved one of three break points and converted six of nine, winning 51 of the 83 points contested to set up a quarter-final clash with Japanese pairing Shuko Aoyama and Makoto Ninomiya, who defeated Alexandra Panova of Russia and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2.
Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Darija Jurak of Croatia were edged 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/3), 10-5 by third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja Rosolska in 1 hour, 51 minutes.
The Canadian-Polish duo saved six of nine break points and converted three of 11 to advance to a quarter-final clash with Ukrainian pairing Bondarenko and Olga Savchuk, who crushed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Larsson of Sweden 6-1, 6-3.
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