Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open, while Lu Yen-hsun was knocked out in the first round of the men’s singles.
Hsieh, world No. 1 in women’s doubles and No. 68 in women’s singles, beat Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 7-5, 6-2 in their first encounter during the first round at the open, which started three weeks later than scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hsieh played a 5-5 tie against Pironkova in the first 10 games of the first set before going on to break her Bulgarian opponent’s serve three times to take the set 7-5.
Photo: AP
After her early lead, Hsieh took a 4-0 lead in the first four games and stood a good chance of winning the second set easily, but missed three breakpoint chances and finished with a 6-2 victory.
Hsieh next faces the 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, who won an emotions first match after 15 months out against Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
The 20-year-old Canadian last played at the WTA Finals in October 2019 at Shenzen, China, where she suffered a knee injury that scuppered her entire season last year.
Photo: Reuters
Hsieh and her partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic — the top-seeded women’s pair at the tournament — are also set compete in the women’s doubles.
Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching are also to play in the doubles.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka wasted little time in breezing into the second round.
Japan’s Osaka, the third seed, struck the first serve on Rod Laver Arena against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the women’s singles and strode to the net to touch racquets with her opponent just 68 minutes later after a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
“I was really nervous coming into this match. I just wanted to play well,” Osaka told a smattering of spectators on the socially distanced center court.
Williams started her quest for a record-equaling 24th Grand Slam title in style with a 6-1, 6-1 romp past Germany’s Laura Siegemund in 56 minutes.
“This was a good start, it was vintage Serena,” said the 39-year-old, playing an unparalleled 100th match at the tournament and turning heads in a vivid, one-legged catsuit.
French Open champion Iga Swiatek, 19, beat Arantxa Rus 6-1, 6-3 to reach the second round and continue her Grand Slam winning streak.
In men’s singles, Lu was overpowered by American Reilly Opelka 3-6, 6-7 (2-7), 3-6, failing to reach the next round.
Lu and his partner Sam Querrey of the US are set to take on second-seeded Croatian duo of Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic in the first round of the men’s doubles event.
Men’s third seed and US Open champion Dominic Thiem was made to work hard in the first set by Kazakh veteran Mikhail Kukushkin before coming through 7-6 (7/2), 6-2, 6-3.
“He’s very experienced and the first set was super-challenging,” said Thiem, beaten by Novak Djokovic in five epic sets in the Australian Open final last year.
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