Taiwanese tennis player Hsieh Su-wei and her doubles partner Zhang Shuai of China dispatched their opponents 6-2, 6-3 in Indian Wells on Sunday to advance to the quarter-finals at the BNP Paribas Open.
The fifth-seeded Taiwanese-Chinese pair came out strong against the US’ Makenna Jones and Mccartney Kessler in the opener, breaking their opponents’ serve several times to clinch the first set.
Hsieh and Zhang kept up their strong play in the second set, besting their opponents 6-2 to seal the match that lasted just 62 minutes.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images/ USA Today
They would next face Australian Ellen Perez and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals, both of whom are seeded fourth in the tournament.
At the start of the season, Hsieh had partnered with Ostapenko for the Australian Open and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, but they fell short and had to settle for second place in the finals of both competitions.
Also on Sunday, Taiwanese player Chan Hao-ching and her Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova saw their run in Indian Wells come to an end, when they lost 5-7, 6-3 (8-10) in the women’s doubles in the round of 16 after a super tiebreaker.
Photo: AFP
Defending champion Iga Swiatek edged closer to an unprecedented third Indian Wells WTA title, overwhelming Dayana Yastremska 6-0, 6-2 to reach the fourth round.
Swiatek’s 65-minute victory set the tone on a day that saw Daniil Medvedev spend just 10 minutes on court before ailing opponent Alex Michelsen retired. Swiatek, the world No. 2 from Poland, was in full control against hard-hitting Ukrainian Yastremska, swinging freely as she won the first 10 games.
She converted six of her 11 break chances and did not face a break point herself. It was all but over by the time Yastremska got on the board by winning her last two service games.
“It’s always hard to finish a match like that,” Swiatek said. “But I’m happy that I got my intensity up the last game and closed it with confidence.”
Swiatek next faces Czech Karolina Muchova, who trailed 3-5 in the first set, but won 10 of the next 11 games to beat compatriot Katerina Siniakova 7-5, 6-1.
Russian 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva and 2023 Indian Wells champion Elena Rybakina joined Swiatek in dishing out bagels as they lined up a fourth-round clash.
Andreeva, who triumphed in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, last month to become the youngest ever winner of a WTA 1000 event, needed 63 minutes to beat Denmark’s Clara Tauson 6-3, 6-0 in a rematch of the Dubai final.
Rybakina downed Britain’s Katie Boulter 6-0, 7-5.
Fourth seed Jessica Pegula of the US, fresh off her first WTA title of the year in Austin, was another quick winner, putting away China’s Wang Xinyu 6-2, 6-1 in 62 minutes.
Pegula next faces Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Danielle Collins.
Medvedev headlined the men’s lineup in the combined ATP Masters and WTA 1000 event, but he was barely under way when 20-year-old Michelsen retired because of illness after dropping the first two games.
“Food poisoning or something like this, these things happen,” said Medvedev, who was headed to the practice courts to tune up for a fourth-round clash with 10th-seeded Tommy Paul of the US.
Paul beat Britain’s 2021 Indian Wells winner Cameron Norrie, ranked 77th in the world, 6-3, 7-5.
Eighth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, coming off his first title in almost a year in Dubai, beat Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3 in a rematch of their Dubai quarter-final last week.
Tsitsipas dropped just eight points on his serve as he wrong-footed the Italian with a variety of athletic shots, breaking him three times on the way to victory in 68 minutes.
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