Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Friday rallied from a set down to keep her bid for a second Wimbledon women’s doubles title on track, while there were shock defeats for Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching at the All England Club in London.
Fourteenth seeds Hsieh and Lucie Hradecka fought back after losing the first set to defeat Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour, 47 minutes on Court 5 in the second round of the women’s doubles.
The Taiwanese-Czech duo converted three of eight break points and won 98 of the 186 points contested, despite sending down 10 double faults.
Photo: AP
Hsieh was due to face world No. 1 Simona Halep in the third round of the singles yesterday, with the top seed and seventh seed Karolina Pliskova the only top-10 players still standing in the women’s singles draw.
Hsieh, a former Wimbledon women’s doubles champion, said the demolition of the top seeds was a good omen.
“I haven’t beaten any top-10 seeds, so it’s not my business to think about this, but it shows that on the grass court anyone has a chance to beat a top-10 player, so it’s a good sign,” Hsieh told Agence France-Presse.
Photo: AP
“It’s good that we can enjoy [a] more varied game. Before it was always Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Serena Williams. Now we have more young girls, that will give more different opportunities for the other girls to compete,” she added. “There are many young girls coming up who are playing big power and they try very hard to win every match.”
Hsieh is enjoying herself in London and says she likes to immerse herself in the local culture wherever the WTA Tour takes her.
“I’m having a really good time at the moment. Here I enjoy the strawberries, the crowd, the shopping and taking afternoon tea. This is the must-do list every year we come to Wimbledon,” she said. “I take my whole team and we have a lobster sandwich. My favorite is lobster roll because with the sauce it’s very special.”
It was not such a good day for fifth seeds Latisha Chan and Peng Shuai of China after they fell to a surprise 6-4, 6-4 second-round defeat to Alicja Rosolska of Poland and Abigail Spears of the US in 1 hour, 12 minutes on Court 16.
Younger sister Chan Hao-ching and Yang Zhaoxuan of China also crashed out on Court 10.
The seventh seeds fell to a 6-3, 6-2 defeat to Christina McHale of the US and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
Also on Friday, Serena Williams boosted her chances of winning an eighth Wimbledon and 24th Grand Slam by making the fourth round, as big sister Venus fell victim to the curse of the seeds.
Serena, seeded a modest 25 this year, enjoyed a 7-5, 7-6 (7/2) win over France’s Kristina Mladenovic to set up a last-16 duel with Russian qualifier — and fellow mother — Evgeniya Rodina.
Victory on Center Court, sealed with a 13th ace, came 20 minutes after Venus had slumped to a 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 8-6 loss to Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands over on Court 1.
Serena said she was delighted to be into the second week at Wimbledon.
“I have worked really hard and it’s been a long arduous road,” Serena said. “A lot of top players have lost. Technically, I am not a top player, although I have the wins of one.”
Venus was worn down by Dutch 20th seed Bertens, who next faces Pliskova.
“It means a lot. It was such a tough match and such a big fight so I’m really happy that I won this one,” Bertens said.
While the women’s draw was being blown wide open, it was business as usual for defending men’s champion Roger Federer, who enjoyed a 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 win over Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.
Federer took his consecutive sets won at Wimbledon to 29 in what was his 200th career grass-court match.
The eight-time champion is to face French 22nd seed Adrian Mannarino tomorrow for a place in the quarter-finals.
Stefanos Tsitsipas became the first Greek man in the Open era to make the last 16 of a Slam as the 31st seed beat Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.
The 19-year-old is to face US ninth seed John Isner for a place in the quarter-finals.
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