The Chan sisters were on Tuesday victorious in the doubles at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, while second seed Karolina Pliskova and third seed Dominika Cibulkova both lost their opening singles matches.
Fourth seeds Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis rallied from a set down to win their second-round match against Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 14-12 in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved two of seven break points and converted five of six to advance to a quarter-final against either sixth seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai or Mandy Minella and Anastasija Sevastova, who were due to play their second-round match yesterday.
Fifth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Yaroslava Shvedova cruised to a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Elise Mertens of Belgium and Aleksandrina Naydenova of Bulgaria in just 55 minutes in the first round.
The Taiwanese-Kazakh duo converted four of six break points and won 55 of the 94 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania and Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
In the singles, Pliskova fell 6-2, 6-4 to Kristina Mladenovic, while Cibulkova lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to Ekaterina Makarova in the second round after both had received first-round byes.
Top seed Angelique Kerber, who would return to the world No. 1 ranking if she wins the Dubai title, won her opening match 6-4, 6-3 against fellow German Mona Barthel.
“It’s always tough to play against a German,” Kerber said. “I was really happy with my performance today. I played my game.”
Pliskova won her second title of the year in Doha last week, defeating former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the final, but she had little time to adjust to the different conditions in Dubai — the courts are playing faster and the ball flies a bit more.
In particular, Pliskova struggled with her serve, double-faulting six times and losing her serve on four of nine break points she presented to Mladenovic.
“I was just playing, like, really bad, so there is not much what you can do about it,” Pliskova said. “If you are playing like this and your opponent is playing well, then you’re probably gonna lose the match.”
World No. 37 Makarova had lost her first three encounters against Cibulkova before she upset her in the third round of the Australian Open last month.
“I never beat her before [Australia],” Makarova said. “So this match, when I was coming out and I [was] kind of more believing that I can win, and I knew what to do, how to play, where to go.”
At the Delray Beach Open, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun and Leander Paes of India advacned to the quarter-finals of the doubles with a 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 victory over US duo Bjorn Fratangelo and Taylor Fritz in 1 hour, 27 minutes.
The ATP Tour veterans saved nine of 12 break points and converted four of nine to set up a clash against another American pairing, either top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan or Jared Donaldson and Sam Querrey.
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