Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung cruised into the second round of the doubles at the Internationaux de Strasbourg on Monday, while top seed Sara Errani was ousted in the singles.
Second seeds Chuang and Darija Jurak of Croatia eased to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Nadia Podoroska of Argentina and Jil Belen Teichmann of Switzerland in just 63 minutes on the red clay in France.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved six of seven break points and converted five of 10, winning 58 of the 92 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against Nicole Melichar of the US and Alicja Rosolska of Poland, who advanced with a walkover when their opponents pulled out before their first-round clash.
In the singles, Errani suffered another setback in her French Open preparations when she lost to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round.
It was the third straight tournament Errani has lost in the opening round.
The poor run prompted the Italian, who won in Dubai in February, to seek and receive a wild card into Strasbourg to try and improve her confidence for the French Open starting on Sunday.
Since Errani lost the 2012 French Open final to Maria Sharapova, she has reached the semi-finals once and quarter-finals twice.
Defending Strasbourg champion Samantha Stosur, seeded third, defeated US qualifier Lauren Davis 6-3, 7-5 to set up a second-round clash with Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei, while eighth seed Timea Babos of Hungary beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-4, 6-1.
The match between second seed Sloane Stephens and Donna Vekic was suspended because of darkness at a set apiece.
Three Frenchwomen were among the winners — Caroline Garcia, wild-card Pauline Parmentier and lucky loser Virginie Razzano.
VERSICHERUNGSCUP
AP, NUREMBERG, Germany
Third seed Annika Beck of Germany overcame a rain delay to breeze past Teliana Pereira of Brazil 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the Nuernburg Versicherungscup on Monday.
Beck ended a run of three straight first-round defeats.
Seventh-seeded German Anna-Lena Friedsam also advanced, beating Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4. Eighth seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan was taken to three sets before overcoming qualifier Olga Fridman of Ukraine 6-7 (0/7), 6-2, 7-5.
Monday’s other winners were Varvara Lepchenko and Christina McHale of the US, Polona Hercog of Slovenia, qualifier Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia.
Former NBA sensation Jeremy Lin, recently recruited by the P.League+’s Kaohsiung Steelers, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday. Lin arrived at the airport at 5:46am on a China Airlines flight from the US before leaving the airport via a VIP terminal. Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan, is believed to be observing Taiwan’s “0+7” self-initiated COVID-19 prevention program for arrivals. Lin had said earlier in the week that he would be practicing social distancing from yesterday through Saturday, meaning he would not participate in games or visit the Steelers’ home court during that period. The Steelers said in a statement that Lin would
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