Chan Hao-ching advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Wednesday, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei and Lu Yen-hsun crashed out of the singles in Budapest and Delray Beach respectively.
Fifth seeds Chan and Yaroslava Shvedova took just 66 minutes to see off Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania and Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-3 in their second-round match.
The Taiwanese-Kazakh pairing saved two of four break points and converted five of nine to advance to a last-eight clash with top-seeded French duo Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.
Photo: EPA
In the singles, American teen Catherine “CiCi” Bellis upset world No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the third round.
“It’s definitely, obviously, the biggest win of my career and probably one of the best days of my life,” Bellis said.
The 17-year-old, ranked 70th, had lost her previous four matches against top-10 opponents.
Bellis is one of two teenagers in the quarter-finals with 19-year-old Ana Konjuh of Croatia beating eighth seed Elena Vesnina of Russia 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Bellis was to play 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Wozniacki lost the opening set, but went on to beat Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
“She’s a great young player and has a lot of confidence,” Wozniacki said of Bellis.
“Right now I’m just going to enjoy this victory and then get ready for tomorrow [yesterday],” she said.
Earlier, Angelique Kerber reached the tournament’s quarter-finals for the first time by beating Olympic champion Monica Puig 6-2, 6-3.
The top seed is 3-1 against Puig, but the last time they played the Puerto Rican beat Kerber for the gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last year.
“It’s always tough to play against Monica, especially after our last match,” Kerber said.
“I was really not thinking too much about our final in Rio, because it was a completely totally different match than today,” she said.
Kerber was due to face Konjuh.
Seventh seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine defeated Christina McHale of the US 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
“Didn’t do my best, but then I’m really happy that I won today,” said Svitolina, who was due to face unseeded Lauren Davis of the US, who beat Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.
At the Hungarian Ladies Open, Hsieh was crushed 6-2, 6-1 by Czech second seed Lucie Safarova in the seond round of the singles, before returning to the court to advance to the quarter-finals of the doubles.
Fourth seeds Hsieh and Oksana Kalashnikova ousted Anna Blinkova of Russia and Panna Udvardy of Hungary 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) in just 67 minutes in Budapest.
The Taiwanese-Georgian duo saved three of six break points and converted five of 10 to set up a last-eight clash with Alexandra Cadantu of Romania and Nicola Geuer of Germany.
At the ATP Tour’s Delray Beach Open, Lu fell in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 second-round defeat to eighth seed Kyle Edmund of Britain, who advanced to a quarter-final against top seed Milos Raonic of Canada.
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