Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis of Switzerland yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open, while defending men’s singles champion Novak Djokovic survived a scare on Wednesday.
Third seeds Chan and Hingis rallied from a set down to defeat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in 1 hour, 23 minutes in their quarter-final at La Caja Magica in the Spanish capital.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved three of eight break points and converted five of 14, winning 68 of the 132 points to improve their career record against Groenefeld and Peschke to 2-0 after a round-of-16 victory in Dubai in February.
Photo: AP
On Wednesday, second seed Djokovic recovered from a 3-0 deficit in the third set to defeat Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 and reach the third round of the men’s singles.
Djokovic rallied in the final set by breaking Almagro to go up 6-5 and served out to earn his 15th win of the season.
The victory left Djokovic on track to play a semi-final against four-time Madrid Open champion and home-crowd favorite Rafael Nadal, who struggled in a 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini of Italy.
“I haven’t played bad, I played really bad,” Nadal said. “It was uncomfortable.”
It was an important opening win for Djokovic as he tries to turn his season around and regain his form going into the French Open.
“When you’re not winning too many matches, you have to build the confidence level,” Djokovic said. “So to win the matches like this definitely helps confidence.”
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