The seventh-seeded doubles team of Zheng Jie and Yung-Jan Chan moved on to the semifinals Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy.
Chan of Chinese Taipei played serving with strength. She didn't rocket them in Wednesday, but she rarely missed with her first serve and dropped no more than a handful of points total, coming up with crucial 5-4 holds in both sets.
The Americans missed a chance to pull ahead in the first set with a 3-1 lead after China's Zheng was broken at love, but Mattek- Sands was broken twice in a row to set Chan for the first-set hold.
Mattek-Sands' serving got no better. Zheng and Chan broke her with Zheng's pass down the middle for a 3-1 lead in the second set and never relinquished their lead, taking the match on a series of errors by the Americans, including one slow-bouncing ball down the middle that each expected the other to take.
"Yung-Jan played in style today. She gave me a lot of encourage on the court," said Zheng. "Williams sisters are not in the doubles draw, so every pair here has a chance to win."
Zheng and Chan have had a relatively easy time so far in the tournamen, only losing a total of eight games in the tournament so far and enjoying a second-round walkover win over Dominika Cibulkova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
But in the semifinals, they face second-seeded Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova, which should provide more of a challenge for the young Chinese duo.
"We lost a recent match against Huber and Petrova, so we have to care about each point in the semifinal. Playing with a strong mind, I think it will help us," added Zheng.
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