Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Chuang Chia-jung cruised into the second round of the mixed doubles at the French Open in Paris on Thursday.
Top seeds Chan and Jamie Murray eased past Australian duo Daria Gavrilova and John Peers 6-1, 6-2 on Court 15 at Roland Garros.
The Taiwanese-Scottish pairing saved one of the two break points they faced and converted five of eight, winning 52 of the 84 points contested to advance to a second-round clash against either Tatjana Maria of Germany and Nicolas Mahut of France or Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Rohan Bopanna of India.
Photo: Courtesy of Chan Hao-Ching’s Facebook page
On Court 8, Chuang and Henri Kontinen downed French duo Pauline Parmentier and Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-3.
The Taiwanese-Finnish pairing saved both break points they faced and converted all three they created, winning 60 of the 101 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with either eighth-seeded US duo Coco Vandeweghe and Bob Bryan or French pairing Virginie Razzano and Vincent Millot.
Chan Hao-ching’s elder sister, Chan Yung-jan, and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, the seventh seeds, were due to take on Romanian duo Simona Halep and Horia Tecau in the first round late yesterday.
In the singles yesterday, fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza and sixth-seeded Simona Halep both reached the last 16, but in contrasting fashions.
With the early exits of Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and the powerful Victoria Azarenka, the Spaniard and the Romanian are seen as the biggest threats to Serena Williams’ bid for a record-equaling 22nd Grand Slam title.
Williams is in the other half of the draw and has reached the third round without dropping a set.
The 22-year-old Venezuela-born Muguruza, who lost last year’s Wimbledon final to Williams, easily saw off the challenge of Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-0, winning nine games in a row from 3-3 in the first set.
“I did play very well. I wanted so much to win this match,” she said. “I am really motivated at Roland Garros and I hope I can continue like this.”
Halep, a losing finalist to Maria Sharapova in Paris two years ago, was stretched by 18-year-old US-based Japanese player Naomi Osaka before pulling through 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
“It was a very tough match. She played unbelievable and she is very young and talented,” Osaka said.
“I think it was a little bit of mental and a little bit of experience too. I did well in the end and I am happy I can play again the fourth round here,” she added.
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
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