Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday fell to a shock defeat in the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Abu Dhabi WTA Women’s Tennis Open.
Doubles world No. 1 Hsieh and world No. 7 Barbora Krejcikova, the top seeds, fell to a comprehensive 6-4, 6-1 loss to Japanese fifth seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in 65 minutes.
The match went with serve in the first set until the final game, when the top seeds were broken to love when serving at 4-5.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Things only got worse for the Taiwanese-Czech duo in the second set as their Japanese opponents raced to a 5-0 lead.
Hsieh and Krejcikova held serve to claw a game back, but the Japanese duo held their nerve to complete the victory in the next game.
The top seeds won just two of eight points on return of second serve and failed to convert any of their five break points.
In the semi-finals, the Japanese duo face Sofia Kenin of the US and Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, who defeated Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands and Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 6-4, 6-4 in their quarter-final.
Hsieh is next heading to Australia to undergo quarantine before teaming up with her usual Czech partner, Barbora Strycova, as they attempt to go one better than last year when they were losing finalists at the Australian Open.
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