Closing the activities on Court 5 today, Su-Wei Hsieh, once a top-30 caliber play who now finds herself at 131 in the world, caused a minor upset by cruising past Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi, a top-50 player who already made it as far as the quarterfinals at Wimbledon twice, in two rather easy sets, with a 6/1, 6/4 scoreline.
Hsieh, however, also experienced success at the All England Club in the past, as she is a former doubles champion there, claiming her title in 2013. In singles, her best appearance dates back to 2012, when she won two matches. Despite recent history pointing to Kanepi as a favorite, Hsieh left her no room today, imposing her game and leaving the court with a convincing win.
The first set lasted less than half an hour. Hsieh won the first game on her service and failed to break the Estonian's first time on serve, but from the third game on, it was complete control from the women from Taipei. First, she held from love. Then she recovered as Kanepi squandered two game points from 40-15 up to force the first break points of the match, eventually converting the second. Hsieh then held for 4/1 from 15 and served out the set at love, dishing the former top-15 a breadstick.
Hsieh kept the momentum coming in the second serve, breaking Kanepi right away. She also relied on strong service games to fend off any threat the Estonian could pose to her win. She twice held at 15, was pushed to deuce once, and finally served out the set again at love forcing three errors from Kanepi’s racket and putting final terms on her win with a forehand winner for a 6/4 set two win. The 29-year-old never faced a break-point today.
The woman from Chinese Taipei now awaits for either Alison Riske or Lucie Safarova in the second round of Wimbledon, adding to her points tally after bowing out in her opener last year, to Tereza Smitkova.