Second seeds Chan Hao-ching and Anabel Medina Garrigues eased into the semi-finals of the doubles at the Nuremberg Versicherungscup yesterday, defeating Sandra Klemenschits of Austria and Antonia Lottner of Germany 6-4, 6-1.
The Taiwanese-Spanish duo got off to a flying start by breaking their opponents in the opening game, but were pegged back when Klemenschits and Lottner broke back in the fourth to make it 2-2.
However, Chan and Medina Garrigues broke straight back in the fifth game and then held their serve to win the first set 6-4 in 36 minutes.
Photo: EPA
The second seeds then broke again in the first and fifth games of the second set, claiming the victory by converting their second match point after 1 hour, 3 minutes on court.
The Taiwanese--Spanish pairing saved six of the seven break-point chances they faced and converted five of 11 to set up a semi-final against Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia and Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, who defeated third seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 7-5, 3-6, 10-5 on Tuesday.
In the singles on Tuesday, second seed Angelique Kerber came from 5-1 down in the second set to beat Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) and reach the quarter-finals.
The German next faces Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi, who rallied from a set down to beat Zhang Shuai of China 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the second round.
Italians Roberta Vinci and Karin Knapp also advanced with comfortable victories.
Fourth seed Vinci defeated Tereza Smitkova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1, while Knapp, the No. 6 seed, prevailed over German wild card Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-1, 6-3.
Vinci next plays seventh seed Kurumi Nara of Japan, who defeated Switzerland’s Stephanie Voegele 6-3, 6-4, while Knapp takes on either Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands or Julia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
STRASBOURG
Top seeds Chuang Chia-jung and Liang Chen survived a second-set wobble to advance to the semi-finals of the doubles at the Internationaux de Strasbourg on Tuesday.
The cross-strait duo overcame US pairing Madison Brengle and Asia Muhammad 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 10-4 in the super tiebreak to complete the victory in 1 hour, 31 minutes.
Chuang and Liang saved two of five break-point chances and converted five of six to set up a semi-final against another US pairing, third seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Taylor Townsend, who defeated French duo Irina Ramialison and Constance Sibille 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour, 18 minutes.
In the singles, second seed Jelena Jankovic advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Zheng Saisai of China.
In a match that featured 11 breaks of serve, the 30-year-old Jankovic proved more consistent and came through to line up a match with Sloane Stephens of the US at the clay-court tournament.
“I’m looking forward to it. Every match is good ahead of the French Open, and I’m playing well and I’ll just try to keep it going,” Stephens said.
A former world No. 1, Jankovic has dropped to 25th in the WTA rankings, while Stephens made her breakthrough two seasons ago by reaching the semi-finals at the Australian Open.
Before Strasbourg, Stephens had won just two matches on clay this year, but the 22-year-old lost only five points on her first serve and broke once in each set to seal a 6-3, 6-4 win over sixth seed Coco Vandeweghe in an all-American clash.
“I played a solid match, I was happy with that — it’s always tough playing an American — and happy to get the win,” world No. 41 Stephens said.
Third seed Samantha Stosur also progressed to the quarter-finals with a walkover after opponent Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine withdrew with a back injury.
Stosur, a former finalist at the French Open, next faces Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia, who defeated another American Shelby Rogers 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-2.
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