Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the doubles at the Tennis in The Land tournament, while Bernarda Pera extended her career-best winning streak to 12 matches in the singles in Cleveland, Ohio.
Chan and Shuko Aoyama of Japan cruised past Marcela Zacarias of Mexico and Francesca di Lorenzo of the US 6-2, 6-3 in their quarter-final.
The third seeds saved the only break point they faced and converted three of five to set up a semi-final tomorrow against second seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Ellen Perez of Australia, who defeated American duo Dalayna Hewitt and Peyton Stearns 6-3, 5-7, 10-5.
Photo: AFP
In the singles, Pera beat top seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals.
World No. 51 Pera broke 2021 French Open champion Krejcikova four times in claiming eight of the final nine games. The 27-year-old has won her last two WTA 250 tournaments in Budapest, Hungary, and Hamburg, Germany.
Second seed Martina Trevisan of Italy withdrew with a thigh injury, giving China’s Zhang Shuai a walkover.
Third seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia was upset by Madison Brengle 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Alexandrova served for the match twice in the second set against world No. 63 Brengle, who fought off six match points in her 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 opening-round victory over Varvara Gracheva at the US Open tuneup event.
The only remaining seeds are Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus (seventh) and Alize Cornet of France (eighth). Sasnovich is to take on Brengle, while Cornet faces Zhang in the quarter-finals.
Three of the remaining eight players are Americans — Pera, Brengle and 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.
WINSTON-SALEM OPEN
AFP, WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina
Britain’s Jack Draper on Wednesday defeated 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem 6-1, 6-4 to reach the ATP Winston-Salem Open quarter-finals.
The 20-year-old Englishman, who reached his first ATP Masters Series quarter-final two weeks ago in Montreal, ousted the Austrian who won his first major title two years ago in New York.
Thiem missed most of last year with a wrist injury, including the chance to defend his US Open title.
World No. 231 Thiem had not played a hard-court match since March last year until this week, but advanced to the third round when top seed Grigor Dimitrov retired in the second set of their second-round match.
Dutch second seed Botic van de Zandschulp advanced by beating Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-3, 6-3 to book a quarter-final match against French 10th seed Benjamin Bonzi, who dispatched Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro 7-5, 6-2.
Two other Frenchmen also advanced, with Richard Gasquet rallying past Steve Johnson of the US 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-3 and Adrian Mannarino ripping Spanish eighth seed Albert Ramos 6-3, 6-3.
Mannarino next faces fourth seed Maxime Cressy of the US, who ousted Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), while Gasquet faces Serbia’s Laslo Djere, who outlasted Australian Jason Kubler 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (9/11), 6-3.
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