Wed, May 11, 2016 page20

• Chan Yung-jan triumphs in Taiwanese showdown

  • By Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with AFP, ROME
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  Chan Yung-jan ousted fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung in the first round of the women’s doubles at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia yesterday, while Hsieh Su-wei also advanced to the second round late on Monday at the Foro Italico in Rome.

  Chan — who is partnering Anna-Lena Groenefeld this week instead of her usual partner, younger sister Chan Hao-ching — took just 60 minutes to complete a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 victory over Chuang and Darija Jurak of Croatia.

  The Taiwanese-German sixth seeds saved five of six break points and converted six of 11, winning 54 of the 90 points contested to set up a second-round clash with Russian pairing Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Romanian duo Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu, who were due to play their opener later yesterday.

  

  Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic returns to Italy’s Francesca Schiavone in their Internazionali BNL d’Italia first-round singles match in Rome on Monday.

  Photo: EPA

  Hsieh and Oksana Kalashnikova had to work a lot harder to overcome Maria Irigoyen of Argentina and Alicja Rosolska of Poland in their first-round match on Monday, recovering from losing the second set to advance 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 10-6 in the super tiebreak.

  The Taiwanese-Georgian duo saved two of four break points and converted four of nine, winning 78 of the 144 points contested in 1 hour, 24 minutes.

  In the second round, Hsieh and Kalashnikova face the most daunting challenge in the doubles — a clash with top seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India, who received a bye in the first round.

  In the men’s singles on Monday, three out of four seeds booked second-round spots as Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga pulled the plug on his participation due to a training injury.

  The sudden adductor problem less than two weeks before the French Open is not good news for the seventh seed.

  On court there were wins for Canadian 10th seed Milos Raonic and 11th seed Richard Gasquet as second seed Andy Murray landed in Rome after splitting from his coach Amelie Mauresmo a day after he lost the Mutua Madrid Open final to Novak Djokovic.

  Thomas Bellucci sent 14th seed Gael Monfils to a 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) opening loss, with Monfils calling for the trainer after less than half an hour on court.

  Tsonga said he would work to be fit for the start of Roland Garros.

  “I was sick when I left Madrid for two days, and I came here and I tried to play a little bit to see how it goes,” Tsonga said. “This morning I just stretched a little bit my adductor.”

  Raonic defeated Italy’s Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to line up a massive challenge against Nick Kyrgios in the next round.

  Kyrgios hammered Italian wild-card Salvatore Caruso 6-1, 6-2 after reaching the semi-finals in Estoril and the Madrid quarter-finals in his past two clay-court events.

  “Clay is probably my least preferred surface to be honest, but I actually don’t play too bad on it. I think it suits my game quite well,” the Australian said.

  Kyrgios said he had not spoken with Bernard Tomic, whose habit of giving away matches and not trying his best is becoming a major cross to bear for the Aussie.

  “I haven’t really been hanging out with Bernard or speak to him too much,” Kyrgios said. “I’m sure something is not right.”

  Heavy hitters Kyrgios and Raonic have a 2-2 career record, with the Australian winning the last two at Wimbledon last year and in Miami in March.

  France’s Gasquet advanced past compatriot Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-0.

  Austrian 13th seed Dominic Thiem overcame Alexander Dolgopolov 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, while Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez spoiled the day for Italian No. 1 Fabio Fognini 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).

  Qualifier Ernests Gulbis beat Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-3 and German teenager Alexander Zverev put out Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-4.

  Murray had broken ground as the first major ATP Tour player to work with a female coach, which he did for almost two years with Mauresmo.

  “I’ve learned a lot from Amelie over the past two years. She’s been a calming influence in the team and we’ll miss having her around,” Murray said in a statement. “I’ll take some time to consider the next steps and how we progress from here.”

  The relationship was interrupted last year when the Frenchwoman took time away to have a child, joining Murray by becoming a new parent in August last year. Since then, her appearances in the team camp have been limited.

  In the women’s singles, 1999 champion Venus Williams, the 12th seed, started with a defeat of Coco Vandeweghe 6-4, 6-3 as Russian Darya Kasatkina put out Czech 16th seed Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-4.

  “That was my first time playing against Coco. I hit with her a little bit at Fed Cup, but I was not really sure what to expect.” Williams said. “I imagine that on the clay I have a little bit more advantage, just having played more matches on clay. I think that helped a lot.”

  Roland Garros finalist Lucie Safarova, the 10th seed, started with a defeat of veteran Italian wild-card Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-2.
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