Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei cruised into the quarter-finals of the doubles at the OEC Taipei WTA Challenger yesterday, but there was more woe for the hosts in the singles at the Taipei Arena, as not a single home player made it into the second round.
Second seeds Chan and Junri Namigata wasted no time booking their spot in the quarter-finals of the doubles as they took just 36 minutes to see off Taiwanese wild-cards Lee Yang and Shih Hsin-yuan 6-0, 6-0.
The Taiwanese-Japanese duo did not face a single break point and converted six of 10, winning 48 of the 64 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against another all-Taiwanese pairing, Lee Pei-chi and Yang Chia-hsien.
Lee and Yang saved three of five break points and converted two of six, winning 66 of the 123 points contested on their way to a 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 victory over fellow Taiwanese duo Cho Yi-tsen and Wu Fang-hsien in 1 hour, 20 minutes.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals were Taiwanese-Indian duo Hsu Ching-wen and Ankita Raina, who saved one of two break points and converted two of three, winning 62 of the 121 points contested in a tight 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 victory over Taiwanese pairing Cho I-hsuan and Hsu Chieh-yu.
Hsu and Raina next face top-seeded Chinese duo Han Xinyun and Zhang Kai-lin.
Another Taiwanese pairing, Lee Ya-hsin and Pai Ya-yun, were crushed 6-0, 6-1 by Japanese duo Kanae Hisami and Kotomi Takahata, while Thai pairing Nicha Lertpitaksinchai and Peangtarn Plipuech rallied from a set down to oust Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland and Zhang Ling of Hong Kong 2-6, 7-6 (7/2), 10-6.
In the singles, the last two Taiwanese players remaining in the draw were eliminated in the first round, Chan falling to a 6-2, 6-0 defeat to Zhang Kai-lin and Cho I-hsuan ousted 6-3, 6-3 by fifth seed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.
In other first-round singles matches, second seed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan ousted Marina Melnikova 6-0, 6-4; fourth seed Timea Babos of Hungary downed Tena Lukas of Croatia 7-5, 6-3; Elise Mertens of Belgium defeated Han 6-2, 6-4; and Amandine Hesse of France beat Hiroko Kuwata of Japan 7-5, 4-6, 6-0.
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