China's Yang Zhaoxuan, Xu Yifan pushed out of Australian Open doubles

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, January 23, 2022
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SYDNEY, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese No. 14 seeds Yang Zhaoxuan and Xu Yifan were beaten out in their women's doubles third round match against third-seeded Russian Veronika Kudermetova and Belgian Elise Mertens.

The match came down to a few key points with the European duo winning just 5 more points than their Chinese rivals, 88 to 83. The final score of the match was 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Playing in the first session of the day on Sunday, the Chinese duo secured a fast 3-0 lead but the Europeans managed to turn around the set with a series of late breaks.

They consolidated the turnaround in the tiebreaker after Xu and Yang made a series of unforced errors in a set lasting a gruelling 64 minutes.

The second set followed a similar pattern as Yang and Xu made an early breakaway, but Kudermetova and Mertens were able to even out the score at 4-4 to their service.

The No. 3 seeds won their service with an ace, and were able to break their opponents for the win in game 10. The match lasted just under two hours.

"I think today we played better than two rounds before. I think we start not really well. We made a lot of mistakes," Kudermetova said after the match before praising her opponent's strength on the court.

"We can only play here once a year so we try to make the fullest of it. Very grateful to be here during such a difficult time," added Mertens.

Mertens and Kudermetova will now go on to play in the quarterfinals of the women's doubles bracket.

With the elimination of Xu and Yang, China's final hope at the Open rests on the shoulders of Zhang Shuai who is due to play in the second round of the mixed doubles with her partner Australian John Peers on Monday. Enditem

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