Behind Hsieh Su-wei’s rousing women’s singles third-round victory over Sara Errani at the Australian Open yesterday was a simple plan: “Avoid the bagel.”
The Taiwanese had been badly thrashed in all three of her previous matches against the Italian veteran and each defeat featured a stinging 6-0 loss in one of the sets.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the 35-year-old ended that streak with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 win at John Cain Arena that booked her a third appearance in the round-of-16 at Melbourne Park, following on from 2008 and 2018.
Photo: AFP
“It’s so good. I have a record against Errani. Every time I have a bagel,” doubles world No. 1 Hsieh said on court after the match. “Before the match I was thinking: ‘Better don’t eat a bagel today.’”
Hsieh trailed 5-3 in the deciding set, but won the final four games in succession to snatch victory from Errani and set up a clash with 19th seed Marketa Vondrousova.
There will be no fans in attendance as Hsieh bids to make a maiden Grand Slam quarter-final, with Victoria state implementing a snap five-day lockdown from today to contain an outbreak of COVID-19.
Photo: AFP
That means no dining out for food-loving Hsieh, who has a number of favorite restaurants in Melbourne.
“I’m not worried about the [lack of] crowd, I think it’s good for everyone to make sure we are all safe, to help the government,” Hsieh said. “I’m only worried about my Uber Eats — if I can still get something to eat in my room.”
The Chan sisters’ Grand Slam to forget continued yesterday in the mixed doubles following the Taiwanese duo’s shock first-round exit in the women’s doubles on Thursday.
Fourth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Juan Sebatian Cabal of Colombia fell to a 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 defeat to Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Joe Salisbury of Britain in 1 hour, 16 minutes on Court 7.
They were followed out of the tournament by seventh seeds Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig of Croatia, who were beaten 6-4, 7-5 by Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic and Filip Polasek of Slovakia in 1 hour, 22 minutes on Court 17.
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