Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday endured a grueling schedule at the Abu Dhabi WTA Women’s Tennis Open, losing a tight three-set second-round singles match, before bouncing back to edge a nail-biter and advance to the quarter-finals of the doubles.
After her shock defeat of eighth seed Marketa Vondrousova in the first round on Thursday, Hsieh fell to a 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 defeat to world No. 99 Marta Kostyuk in 2 hours, 14 minutes.
The Taiwanese world No. 67 converted six of eight break points, but could only save six of 14 as the 18-year-old Ukrainian edged her first encounter on the WTA Tour with the 35-year-old veteran.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Hsieh returned to the court later in the second round of the doubles alongside Barbora Krejcikova and the top seeds survived a scare to complete a 6-2, 3-6, 12-10 victory over Sharon Fichman of Canada and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico in 1 hour, 37 minutes.
Hsieh is using the Abu Dhabi tournament as a warm-up for next month’s Australian Open, where she is to be reunited with Barbora Strycova as they bid to go one better than their runners-up finish last year.
The Taiwanese doubles world No. 1 and her Czech partner, ranked No. 7, saved five of nine break points and converted five of 10 to set up a quarter-final against Japanese fifth seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, who had a walkover in the second round.
In other singles matches, Russian qualifier and world No. 292 Anastasia Gasanova sent former top-ranked Karolina Pliskova crashing out in a straight sets triumph.
The 21-year-old Gasanova won 6-2, 6-4 to reach the round of 16 and record her first ever victory over a player in the top 100.
Gasanova, making her main draw debut, needed just 73 minutes to see off the third seed.
“I’m really surprised, but when I woke up today, I thought, ‘Why not? Why can’t I win this match?’” Gasanova said. “Actually, I had thought I would lose in qualies or something like that, but I just kept pushing myself, like, I need to win and I want to win.”
Gasanova goes on to face Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo for a place in the quarter-finals.
Ukrainian second seed Elina Svitolina eased past Russian veteran and two-time Grand Slam runner-up Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 6-1.
Greece’s Maria Sakkari, seeded nine, defeated US teenager Coco Gauff 7-5, 6-2.
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