TENNIS/Taiwanese-Japanese duo reaches Wimbledon women's doubles semifinals

Taipei, July 9 (CNA) Taiwan's Liang En-shuo (梁恩碩) and her Japanese tennis partner Shuko Aoyama advanced to the women's doubles semifinals at Wimbledon on Wednesday after winning in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

The pair defeated Australian Ellen Perez and Dutch Demi Schuurs 6-4, 6-4, to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the second consecutive time since they paired up.

Seeded 13th, Liang and Aoyama broke serve at 4-4 in the opening set to take a crucial 5-4 lead before serving out the set 6-4.

The second set followed a similar pattern, with Liang and Aoyama breaking serve at 4-4 to take a 5-4 lead then closing out the match.

Liang and Aoyama committed just six unforced errors in the match, compared with 15 by Perez and Schuurs, a key factor in the result.

The Taiwanese-Japanese pair will next face the No. 2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Luisa Stefani of Brazil in the semifinals.

In June, Liang, 25, and Aoyama, 38, also reached the semifinals at the French Open.

The Wimbledon Championships, the third Grand Slam tournament of the year, is being held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London from June 29 to July 12.