Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, on Wednesday, while Alison Riske had a change of luck in the singles.
Chan and Darija Jurak of Croatia were 6-4, 7-5 victors over Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia and Anna Tatishvili of the US in the first round of the doubles at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium at Stanford University.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved five of 10 break points and converted seven of 11, winning 69 of the 131 points contested to wrap up the straight-sets victory in 1 hour, 31 minutes.
Chan and Jurak face Spanish pairing Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja in the quarter-finals after the second seeds ousted US wild-cards Catherine Bellis and Jacqueline Cako 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) in the first round.
In the top half of the draw, German duo Mona Barthel and Sabine Lisicki stunned fourth-seeded US pairing Raquel Kops-Jones and Maria Sanchez 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) in their first-round match on Wednesday.
Top-seeded Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan were due to take on Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Tatjana Maria of Germany in the quarter-finals on Stadium Court late yesterday.
In the singles, Riske changed her schedule this season to include the Bank of the West Classic for a variety of reasons. One of them was to change her luck.
The world No. 59 American did just that, beating third seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals.
“I’ve had a lot of good matches against top players that have helped my confidence,” Riske said. “I wasn’t winning, but I was playing good tennis.”
It was a tough day for seeded players. World No. 69 Ajla Tomljanovic beat seventh seed Madison Keys of the US 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 and Germany’s Barthel topped sixth-seeded compatriot Andrea Petkovic 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).
Eighth seed Elina Svitolina survived the day in the final match, beating Stanford graduate Nicole Gibbs, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
“That was tough. I thought I’d be off that court in 35 minutes,” Tomljanovic said. “She played so well in the first set, I felt like I wasn’t even in it.”
Tomljanovic refocused on holding serve and eventually got herself back into the match.
“I’m already considering this a great week,” Tomljanovic said. “When you go through bad stretches, you learn to appreciate wins even more.”
Barthel, who has lost her first-round match in 12 of 17 tournaments played this year, could next play top seed Caroline Wozniacki, who was due to make her first appearance late yesterday.
Keys, who served nine aces, was playing her first event since reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Riske, making her main draw debut in the event, beat a top-10 player for the first time in nearly two years and the second overall in 12 tries.
“I always like playing in California,” Riske said. “I wish there were more tournaments here. The weather is perfect, and I played here my first year on the Tour and enjoyed it. I needed to change my schedule.”
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