Chan Hao-ching yesterday advanced to the third round at Wimbledon, but fellow Taiwanese Chang Kai-chen was ousted by the 12th seeds.
Ninth seeds Chan and Monica Niculescu defeated Ipek Soylu of Turkey and Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand 6-3, 6-3 in 69 minutes on Court 8 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London.
The Taiwanese-Romanian duo failed to save any of the three break points they faced, but converted six of 13, winning 64 of 109 points contested.
Photo: AFP
Chang and Sloane Stephens of the US fell to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 defeat to Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic in 1 hour, 42 minutes on Court 6.
The 12th seeds saved nine of 13 break points and converted six of 11 to advance to the third round, despite producing seven double faults.
On Thursday, Chuang Chia-jung and Misaki Doi took just 56 minutes to advance to the second round.
The Taiwanese-Japanese duo eased past Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia and Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-4, 6-1, saving one of three break points and converting five of seven to set up a second-round clash with eighth-seeded Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua.
In the first round of the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Peng Hsien-yin and Sander Arends of the Netherlands were ousted in a five-set marathon that lasted 3 hours, 53 minutes.
Swedish duo Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom eventually triumphed 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 12-10 on Court 11.
In men’s singles, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic on Thursday had to play all three sets this round.
The former champions both advanced to the third round, two days after their opening matches ended early when their opponents retired with an injury.
Federer was broken early in his match, but the seven-time champion recovered quickly and beat Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (7/0), 6-3, 6-2.
Djokovic, a three-time champion, defeated Adam Pavlasek 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.
Djokovic won the Wimbledon title in 2011, 2014 and 2015, but he has not won a major title since completing a career Grand Slam at last year’s French Open.
In his opening two matches at Wimbledon, Djokovic has only lost eight games.
“It’s perfect. Exactly what I want,” Djokovic said. “I don’t want to have any five-set matches in there.”
Djokovic is next to face unseeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).
Federer has lost 14 games so far and is next to face 27th-seeded Mischa Zverev.
Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, Gael Monfils and David Ferrer also reached the third round.
Ferrer advanced when opponent Steve Darcis retired with an injury while trailing 3-0.
Darcis is the eighth man to retire during a match this week. The Belgian took a medical timeout after 18 minutes of play and was unable to continue.
One of the favorites in the women’s tournament, third-seeded Karolina Pliskova, lost on Centre Court. Magdalena Rybarikova beat Pliskova 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the third round for the second time in 10 appearances.
Pliskova entered the tournament with a chance to take over the No. 1 ranking.
“My expectations were a little bit different than to make one round here,” Pliskova said. “That’s tennis, you know. Still, you still can play well and you don’t have to win. That’s my case today.”
Top-seeded Angelique Kerber also advanced to the third round, along with seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, 14th-seeded Garbine Muguruza and 24th-seeded Coco Vandeweghe.
American wild card Bethanie Mattek-Sands injured her right knee and retired from her second-round match.
Moving up toward the net in the opening game of the third set against Sorana Cirstea of Romania, Mattek-Sands slipped and fell. She immediately clutched her right knee and could be heard screaming in pain and sobbing.
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