At the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis 125, world No. 8 Emma Navarro was cruising at 5-2 and had Viktorija Golubic on the ropes reaching deuce on her opponent’s serve twice. However, the Swiss got out of the jam and broke the top seed to level at 5-5. The American managed to produce a late break in the twelfth game to snag the opening set 7-5 against the one-handed backhand Golubic.
The top seed then trailed by a double break in the second but saved a pair of break points in the seventh game and battled back on serve to lead 5-4. The American knuckled down to break the Swiss to 15 to advance with a 7-5 6-4 victory. Navarro, at one point, trailed by two breaks of serve and 4-1, but strong-armed the next five games on the trot to progress.
Navarro: “I’m glad to get the win today and I’ll see you out here tomorrow. I’ve had dim sum and Peking Duck the other night, so the food in Hong Kong is treating me well.”
Last match on Centre Court witnessed former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion, Simona Halep, battle Arina Rodionova of Australia to a standstill before she toughed out a 6-2 4-6 6-4 victory. Halep secured six service breaks and saved 5 of 9 break points to beat her 114th-ranked opponent. This was Halep’s first complete match since she lost to Paula Badosa at the Miami Open in three sets this March. In May, she competed in the WTA 125 Paris but retired against McCartney Kessler midway through.
At 34 years old, Rodionova became the oldest woman to make a top 100 debut on the Hologic WTA tour rankings earlier this year after reaching the Thailand Open quarterfinals in Hua Hin.
Monica Niculescu and Gabby Ruse are Romanian BJKC teammates and hold career-high doubles rankings of No. 11 and No. 32 respectively. They have paired together on tour a number of times before, reaching the US Open quarterfinals and winning the W100+H Nottingham title in 2021. On the other hand, Kimberly Birrell, ranked No. 165 with just two career titles, is the least experienced doubles player on court. Niculescu and Ruse’s game plan was clearly to isolate the Aussie and keep the ball away from the nine-time Grand Slam doubles champ, Hsieh Su-Wei, as much as possible.
Both sides had chances to win the first set. Hsieh Su-Wei had a game point on her serve at 5-5 but missed a down-the-line drive by millimeters and the Romanians then held serve to take the first set 7-5. Niculescu and Ruse continued to chase Birrell and registered two more breaks of serve in the second to go through 7-5 6-2.
Niculescu: “It’s nice to get the win today especially against a great player such as Su-Wei. I’ve played here against Dasha Saville in 2018, so it’s great to be back here on Centre Court again. Gabby and I are best friends on tour so it’s fun to play together. Thank you to all the fans who came out, too.”
Hsieh Su-Wei: “It was our first time playing together so it was fun. Maybe we’ll play together next time as well.”
Birrell: “Obviously it was an honour to share the court with Su-Wei, but I think we had really tough opponents today. They played together a lot and it is tricky when you team up for the first time.”
In the match-up pitting doubles specialists Ulrikke Eikeri Norway and Wu Fang-Hsien of Chinese Taipei against local entry Eudice Chong and Cody Wong, just one break of serve separated the two sides in the first, as the top seed broke the Hong Kong No. 2 in the fourth game to cement the opening set 6-3. In the second, Eikeri and Wu produced successive breaks from 2-1 down and won five consecutive games to end the contest 6-3 6-2. Eudice Chong and Cody Wong showed flashes of brilliance but met their match against the experienced Norwegian-Taiwanese combination, who are both ranked in the top 52 at present.
Suzan Lamens fought from a set down to beat world No. 90 Anna Bonda of Hungary 3-6 7-5 6-1 by saving 11 of 13 break points and broke the 8th-seeded Bonda four times, with two of them coming back-to-back in the beginning of the third, as the Dutchwoman jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back. Lamens is the first player to secure a quarterfinal place at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis 125.
Sixth seed Clara Tauson of Denmark saved 8 of 9 break points and broke Italian Martina Trevisan three times to win their first round encounter 6-3 7-5. Tauson is set to face qualifier Varvara Lepchenko next up.
On Centre Court on Thursday, Ajla Tomljanovic will face Elena-Gabriela Ruse first up, followed by Simona Halep against Anna Blinkova, and last but not least, top-seeded Emma Navarro against Kimberly Birrell.