Taiwan tennis star Latisha Chan and her partner Andrea Sestini Hlavackova from the Czech Republic advanced to the quarterfinals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open Jan. 22 in Melbourne, continuing their successful run at the Grand Slam tennis event.
Ranked world No. 1 and No. 5, respectively, Chan and Hlavackova defeated Chan Hao-ching, the former’s younger sister, and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-3, 6-2 in the third round of the tournament. They will face Timea Babos from Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic from France for a chance to compete in the semifinals.
The day before, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai from mainland China also made the quarterfinals by outlasting Raquel Atawo from the U.S. and Anna-Lena Groenefeld from Germany 6-4, 6-2. They will next square off against Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova, both from the Czech Republic.
Hsieh also competed in the women’s singles event. However, the Taiwan star’s hopes were dashed when she lost to Angelique Kerber from Germany 6-4, 5-7, 2-6 in the fourth round.
Ranked 88th in the world, Hsieh won against Zhu Lin from mainland China 0-6, 6-0, 8-6 during the first round, upset World No. 3 Garbine Muguruza from Spain 7-6, 6-4 two days later and knocked out Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-2, 7-5 in the third round.
According to the event’s organizer, Hsieh was trending worldwide on Twitter after the match, with fans commenting on her “quirky but effective” style. Despite the loss to the 2016 Australian Open champion, 32-year-old Hsieh walked off to a standing ovation. (SFC-E)
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