Hsieh, Chan sisters reach Toray Pan-Pacific doubles semifinals

Taipei, Sept. 19 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis ace Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her younger sister Hsieh Yu-chieh (謝語倢), as well as sisters Latisha Chan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) advanced Thursday to the women's doubles semifinals of the Toray Pan-Pacific Open in Osaka, Japan.

The Hsieh sisters defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-5 in two straight sets in the quarterfinals.

They started off strong in the first set with a 5-1 lead before the European pairing came from behind. The Taiwanese duo eventually took the first set 6-3.

The Taiwanese pairing were unable to build up their momentum in the second set and had at one point fallen behind 3-5. After making a successful comeback, however, they fought back to clinch a 7-5 victory in the second set.

They will next go up against Nadiia Kichenok of Uzbekistan and Abigail Spears of the United States.

A day earlier, Hsieh Su-wei, who lifted her third women's doubles trophy at Wimbledon in July, crashed out of the second round of the women's singles at the Pan Pacific Open after falling to a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 defeat to ninth-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens.

Also Thursday, the second-seeded Chan sisters moved forward to the women's doubles semifinals after battling through a super tiebreaker, ultimately taking the match 6-2, 4-6, 10-8 over Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Caroline Garcia of France.

The Chan sisters opened with an 4-0 lead and took the first set 6-2.

In the second set, the Canada-France duo staged a successful comeback, leaving the Taiwanese sisters with a 4-6 loss.

The Taiwanese sisters then fought back hard to win the super tiebreaker in the third set and take victory.

Their semifinal match will put them up against Misaki Doi and Nao Hibino of Japan.