Taiwan’s Chan sisters edged a thrilling Qatar Open doubles semi-final on Friday, while Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro was set to play in both the singles and doubles finals yesterday.
Fourth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan fought back from a set down to edge Russian duo Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina — who had ended the 41-match winning streak of top seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India in the quarter-finals — 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-8 in 1 hour, 54 minutes.
The Taiwanese sisters saved five of nine break points and converted two of 10, winning 80 of the 156 points contested to advance to the final in the super tiebreak at the International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.
Photo: Screengrab from Chan Hao-Ching’s Facebook page
The Chan sisters were going for their second WTA Tour title of the season in the final, which was due to be played in the early hours of this morning, after they claimed the inaugural Taiwan Open title in Kaohsiung on Feb. 14.
“Today was a really tough fight, especially after losing the first set, it was difficult, but fortunately we did not give up from start to finish. Kept playing until the last minute to claim this crucial victory. Will come back tomorrow with the same mentality,” Chan Hao-ching wrote on Facebook.
In the second semi-final, Sara Errani of Italy and Spain’s Suarez Navarro cruised past Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-1, 6-4 in just 64 minutes.
In the singles semi-finals, Suarez Navarro restricted No. 3-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska to only two games with a 6-2, 6-0 victory on Friday.
The eighth-seeded Suarez Navarro needed only 62 minutes to beat Radwanska and is slated to next face 18-year-old Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who reached her first WTA Tour final when German Andrea Petkovic retired with a leg injury while trailing 7-5, 1-0.
Radwanska was 3-1 in head-to-head against Suarez Navarro, which included a crushing 6-1, 6-3 defeat for the Spaniard in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January, but she was determined to make amends from the word go.
Suarez Navarro unleashed two of her 21 winners in the first game to break Radwanska. The third-seeded Radwanska broke back immediately, but that was the only high point of the day for her.
Suarez Navarro won the first set in 29 minutes and Radwanska could do nothing in the second, despite her opponent taking a hard tumble while chasing a ball that required on-court medical attention.
“Today, I feel really, really good,” said Suarez Navarro, who is set to improve to No. 6 in the rankings. “I think also she was a little tired from yesterday [when she beat Roberta Vinci is three sets].”
On achieving her career-high ranking, she added: “You work for a long time for this. And to be in the top 10 is obviously good. I feel happy.”
In the other semi-final, Petkovic appeared to be cruising against Ostapenko when she was 5-1 in the first set with a couple of early breaks.
However, she injured her left leg, and also seemed troubled with her back and Ostapenko took full advantage to rattle off the next seven games in a row before the German retired.
“I feel really sorry for Andrea that she had to retire. She is a great player. But I am happy to have fought back from 5-1 down and reach the final,” Ostapenko said.
Suarez Navarro and Ostapenko have met once before — in the first round of last year’s Wimbledon — where the young Latvian was a 6-2, 6-0 winner.
Ostapenko, ranked 88th at the start of the week, is expected to move into the top 50.
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