Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama on Saturday advanced to the women’s doubles final of the Notthingham Open after a series of comebacks in the England grass-court tournament.
At the WTA 250 warm-up for Wimbledon, the No. 2 seeds, playing together for the first time since last year, were chasing Chan’s first WTA Tour title of the season.
They were as of press time last night to face the British duo of Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden, following the conclusion of the women’s singles final.
Photo courtesy of Chan Hao-ching
Before Nottingham, Chan and Aoyama most recently played together at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in May last year, when they reached the quarter-finals before losing 6-3, 6-2 to Guo Hanyu of China and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US.
Chan and Aoyama reached a WTA Tour final together at the Abu Dhabi Open in February 2023, when they finished as runners-up to Luisa Stefani of Brazil and Zhang Shuai of China.
They also finished runners-up at the Silicon Valley Classic in August 2022.
The final in England was Chan’s first time contesting a WTA Tour title since Tennis in the Land in Cleveland, Ohio, in August last year, when she and Jiang Xinyu of China lost 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 to Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia.
In each of the three matches leading up to last night’s final, Chan and Aoyama had come back from a first-set loss to win in a match tiebreak.
Saturday’s semi-final started with Maria Kozyreva of Russia and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus taking control of the first set with a 7-5 win.
However, Chan and Aoyama were sharper on key points throughout the match, converting three of five break points, while limiting their opponents to just two from 13 opportunities. The Taiwanese-Japanese pair won 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 in 1 hour, 36 minutes.
In their quarter-final on Friday, Leylah Fernandez of Canada and Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine took the early lead with a 6-4 first-set win, but, despite struggles throughout the second set, Chan and Aoyama ultimately prevailed 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-3.
In the round of 16 on Wednesday, they lost the first set 6-4 to Eudice Chong of Hong Kong and Magali Kempen of Belgium, before taking the second set 6-4 and the match tiebreak 10-6.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Japan’s Eri Hozumi were knocked out in their opener on Wednesday, losing 6-0, 6-2 to Fernandez and Starodubtseva.
Wu and Hozumi are next to play at the WTA 250 Eastbourne Open in England, where they are to face Ingrid Neel of Estonia and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico.
In Germany, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Chinese partner Wang Xinyu are to open their women’s doubles campaign at the Bad Homburg Open against Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Quinn Gleason of the US.
Chan is also playing at the WTA 500 grass-court tournament in Germany with Denmark’s Clara Tauson against third seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands.
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