Taiwan’s Lee Ya-hsuan and Liang En-shou yesterday stunned top seeds Nao Hibino of Japan and Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia in the first round of the doubles at the Taipei OEC Open, while English-Taiwanese teenager Joanna Garland crashed out in the first round of the singles.
Lee and 18-year-old Liang, who won the girls’ singles at the Australian Open in January, took just 63 minutes to complete a comprehensive 6-4, 6-2 victory over the favorites at the Taipei Arena.
The Taiwanese duo saved 11 of 13 break points and converted five of eight, winning 60 of the 110 points contested, despite sending down four double faults.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
In the quarter-finals, Lee and Liang face either Lizette Cabrera of Australia and Elena-Gabriela Ruse or Indian pairing Ankita Raina and Karman Thandi, who are due to play their first-round match today.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals were third seeds Misaki Doi of Japan and Danka Kovinic of Montenegro; Magdalena Frech of Poland and Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands; and Japanese duo Momoko Kobori and Ayano Shimizu.
In the first round of the singles, 17-year-old Garland — who reached the third round of the girls’ singles at Wimbledon in July, before claiming the doubles title with Taiwan’s Lee Hua-chen at an ITF tournament in Taipei later the same month — fell to a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Cabrera in 1 hour, 10 minutes.
The Australian world No. 228 saved two of three break points and converted four of eight, winning 65 of the 113 points contested.
Cabrera next faces Thai second seed Luksika Kumkhum, who defeated Chinese world No. 161 Han Xinyun 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour, 13 minutes. The world No. 81 saved two of four break points and converted four of nine, winning 67 of the 122 points contested.
Seventh seed Sabrina Sharipova of Uzbekistan crashed out, falling to a 6-0, 6-2 loss to Ivana Jorovic of Serbia in 54 minutes.
Also advancing to the second round were China’s Xun Fangying, South Korea’s Jang Su-jeong and Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic.
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