Lee Ya-hsuan yesterday failed to make it into the main draw of the Taipei OEC Open, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Shu-ying crashed out of the first round of the doubles at the Taipei Arena.
World No. 268 Lee fell to a 6-3, 6-0 defeat to Czech world No. 212 Tereza Martincova in 55 minutes in the final round of qualifiers for the WTA Tour 125k series tournament.
Martincova sent down four aces, saved one of two break points and converted five of seven, winning 60 of the 95 points contested to oust the Taiwanese 23-year-old and set up a first-round clash with Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who defeated Olga Doroshina of Russia 7-5, 7-5 in 1 hour, 44 minutes.
Photo: Nien Miao-yun, Taipei Times
Also advancing from the qualifiers yesterday were Zhang Yuxuan, who faces fellow Chinese Lu Jiajing in the first round, and South Korea’s Jang Su-jeong, who set up a first-round encounter with Susanne Celik of Sweden.
In the first round, Japanese fifth seed Nao Hibino defeated Indian world No. 193 Ankita Raina 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 in 1 hour, 14 minutes.
The world No. 119 sent down four aces, saved one of three break points and converted four of six, winning 69 of the 122 points contested to be the first player to advance to the second round of the hard-court tournament.
Dutch world No. 211 Bibiane Schoofs defeated Canadian world No. 295 Carol Zhao 6-3, 6-2 in 63 minutes, despite sending down six double faults.
In the first round of the doubles, Hsieh and Xun Fangying of China fell to a 7-5, 6-2 defeat to Russian fourth seeds Doroshina and Natela Dzalamidze in 69 minutes.
In today’s action in Taipei, Lee and Taiwan’s Liang En-shou, the 18-year-old who won the Australian Open girls’ singles title in Melbourne in January, are due to take on top seeds Hibino and Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia in the doubles, before 17-year-old English-Taiwanese world No. 942 Joanna Garland faces Australia’s Lizette Cabrera in the singles.
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