Latisha Chan on Wednesday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open, but fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei crashed out to the top seeds in the second round.
Fifth seeds Chan and Bethanie Mattek-Sands defeated unseeded Julia Goerges of Germany and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) in 1 hour, 24 minutes at La Caja Magica in the Spanish capital.
The Taiwanese-American duo saved three of six break points and converted four of eight, winning 71 of the 131 points contested, despite their opponents firing down five aces to advance to a quarter-final against Czech second seeds Andrea Sestini Hlavackova, Chan’s partner at the beginning of the season, and Barbora Strycova.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Hsieh and Daria Gavrilova of Australia fell to a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Russian top seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
The Russian duo saved nine of 13 break points and converted six of 12, winning 62 of the 112 points contested despite sending down seven double faults.
“It was a nice match for us, because it’s the first match on clay. We had quite tough opponents today, so tricky, and we’re so happy that we finished in two sets,” Makarova said. “We played very solid.”
The top seeds were next due to face unseeded Alicja Rosolska of Poland and Abigail Spears of the US, who knocked out eighth seeds Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and China’s Yang Zhaoxuan on Tuesday.
“They are good doubles players — solid. I think they just started to play together this year. It’s going to be a very difficult match for us,” Vesnina told the WTA Web site. “We need to play very solid, a good level, because if it drops we will have some problems.”
In the men’s singles, Novak Djokovic added another early elimination to his disappointing season, while Rafael Nadal continued to look invincible on clay.
Djokovic lost to Kyle Edmund 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in the second round, the sixth straight tournament in which he has failed to reach the quarter-finals.
Nadal later cruised past Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-1, extending his record of consecutive sets won on clay to 48.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion, coming off titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, has won 37 of his past 38 matches on the surface, including 20 straight.
“I’m happy to start with a victory,” said Nadal, whose last loss on clay came against Dominic Thiem in Rome last year. “It was a very solid match in all aspects.”
Nadal improved to 17-1 overall for the season with his win and is two sets away from breaking John McEnroe’s 1984 record of 49 straight sets won on a single surface.
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