離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Kerber ends Hsieh’s winning streak
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei returns to Angelique Kerber of Germany in their Australian Open fourth-round women’s singles match in Melbourne yesterday. Photo: EPA
SIBLING RIVALRY: Latisha Chan came out on top in a showdown with sister Chan Hao-ching in the women’s doubles, then suffered a shock mixed doubles defeat
By Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with AP, MELBOURNE
For a while yesterday it appeared that former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber’s progression at the Australian Open might have unraveled against world No. 88 Hsieh Su-wei, the Taiwanese with a double-handed grip on both sides.
With a mix of slice and chips, lobs and bunts, whipped half-volleys and wristy cross-court ground strokes off both wings, Hsieh pushed Kerber to the extremes and unsettled her rhythm, but the German finally got a succession of breaks to take the second set and dominate the third in a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory.
“Credit to her. She played an unbelievable match,” said Kerber, who won the Australian and US Open titles and reached world No. 1 in 2016. “I was feeling I was running everywhere. She was playing a lot of corners and drop-shots. I was bringing a lot of balls back.”
After holding it together to improve her winning streak to 13, Kerber next faces Madison Keys of the US in the quarter-finals.
Keys made the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over eighth seed Caroline Garcia.
Hsieh certainly made the most of her time back in the spotlight, returning to the fourth round at a major for the first time in a decade.
She took out one major winner — Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza — in the second round and took a set off an almost dumbfounded Kerber to open the fourth.
Kerber had to produce some of her best tennis.
She finished a 14-shot rally early in the second set by racing to the net and reaching at full stretch to track down a drop-shot and send a forehand winner over the net post.
The 30-year-old German had to serve to stay in the match in the ninth game of the second set. Then, after winning four straight points and converting a break point with a sliding forehand winner down the line, Kerber crouched and screamed to celebrate the point.
She served out the set at love and then got critical service breaks in the first and fifth games of the final set as Hsieh began to tire and started to miss the lines.
Hsieh has won two Grand Slam doubles titles, but had a career-high singles ranking of 23.
At 32, she was oldest woman still in the singles draw.
In the third round of the women’s doubles, Latisha Chan came out on top in a showdown with younger sister Chan Hao-ching.
Top seeds Latisha Chan and Andrea Sestini Hlavackova defeated 14th seeds Chan Hao-ching and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour, 20 minutes at Margaret Court Arena.
“I try to just keep calm and see her as another opponent — I think that shows respect to the others,” Latisha Chan said after the match. “We were playing full-time together for two, three years, so playing against her was really tough. We’re sharing a room and a bathroom, and last night we ate together, but we had to be professional out of respect for each other, the other players and the crowd.”
“I hope my sister doesn’t hate me after this,” Latisha Chan added. “We grew up together and our coach is our dad, so it’s basically the family business — I think he was in the player lounge watching on TV with some popcorn.”
The top seeds did not face a single break point and converted four of six, winning 63 of the 110 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against fifth seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France.
Latisha Chan was back on Show Court 2 later yesterday, where she and Jamie Murray, the top seeds, suffered a shock 7-6 （10/8）, 6-4 defeat to Australian duo Storm Sanders and Marc Polmans in the second round of the mixed doubles.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
