AUSTRALIAN OPEN -
The Czech duo came back to beat Cirstea and Haddad Maia. Peng and Hsieh resumed their winning partnership.
Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open as Nadia Kichenok and Anastasia Rodionova were forced to retire with the Romanian duo leading 4-1 in the opening set. The Russian-born Australian was severely injured and could not continue the game.
She was even barely able to stand and needed a help from her partner to leave the court. "Anastasia Rodionova is a very good girl and I hope she will recover quickly," said Niculescu. She and her fellow countrywoman play the American Jennifer Brady and Vania King for a berth in the semifinals.
Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova completed a comeback 2-6 6-0 6-4 win over the Romanian Sorana Cirstea and the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia. Cirstea looked particularly brilliant on return in the opening stages and delivered a huge crosscourt winner to seal the first set in 32 minutes.
The Czech duo cruised through the second set and managed to recover from 1-4 down in the third winning the last five games of the match. Safarova started to team with her countrywoman after her longtime partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands suffered a horrific knee injury in Wimbledon last year.
Pairing the American, Safarova won four majors in three years, including the Australian Open and Roland Garros in 2017. Safarova and Strycova have found strong form, reaching the semifinals in the only three events they played last year in Toronto, Cincinnati, and the US Open, along with another semifinal in Sydney last week.
To reach the fifth in five tournaments, the Czech duo will have to beat the No.8 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Shuai Peng who resumed their successful partnership this season and beat the 12th seeded German-American duo of Ana-Lena Groenefeld and Raquel Atawo 6-4 6-2.
In 2013 Peng became the first player from China ever to hold a World No.1 ranking in tennis, male or female, singles or doubles. Later that year Hsieh achieved the same feat for Chinese Taipei as they became the 10th team ever to become co-World No.1s in doubles.
They won eight titles between 2013 and 2014, including Wimbledon and the WTA Tour Finals in 2013, Indian Wells and the French Open in 2014. They decided to split after the Us Open that year though they still played the Tour Finals together and made it to the title-match, studiously avoiding each other as they signed autographs during the tournament.
After five years, they seem ready to turn back time.
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