The remaining Taiwanese players in the singles competitions at the US Open bowed out on Wednesday as Lu Yen-hsun lost to Tomaz Bellucci in the men’s competition and Chang Kai-chen was defeated by Magdalena Rybarikova in the women’s.
Brazil’s Bellucci ended Lu’s challenge in the first round with a convincing 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 victory on Court 12. It was an especially disappointing result for the Taiwanese No. 1, as he had beaten the world No. 69 in straight sets at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year.
Lu was outserved by the man from Sao Paolo, who hit eight aces to Lu’s one and whose points success rate of 76 percent on his first serve outshone Lu’s 60 percent.
PHOTO: AP
Chang put up a better fight in her second-round clash, taking the first set 6-4 before her more experienced Slovakian opponent prevailed by taking the next two sets 6-2, 6-2. Rybarikova, who was runner-up in the junior singles at Wimbledon in 2006, faces third seed Venus Williams in the next round.
Taiwanese players fared better in the first round of the women’s doubles, where Chang Yun-jan teamed up with Katerina Srebotnik of Slovenia to defeat Kristina Barrois of Germany and Tathiana Garbin of Italy 6-0, 7-5.
There were mixed fortunes for local players on Court 16 as Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Shuai Peng of China, the No. 7 seeds, beat Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
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