China’s Wang Yafan survives near three-hour marathon to advance at Hong Kong Open tennis
The 31-year-old edges past Australian Maddison Inglis in a three-set tussle at Victoria Park
Wang Yafan was forced to dig deep to fend off a spirited challenge from Maddison Inglis and advance to the second round of the Hong Kong Open tennis tournament on Monday.
In a two-hour 47-minute marathon that ebbed and flowed, the 31-year-old used all her reserves to come out on top 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, though it was far from a simple success.
Wang wasted little time getting into the ascendancy on centre court at Victoria Park, breaking Inglis in the Australian’s second service game before holding firm throughout the rest of the set to nose ahead 6-4.
The second set was nowhere near as straightforward, with Inglis racing into a 3-0 lead which she extended to 5-2, all but ensuring a third set. Although that did eventually come to fruition, it arrived only after four set points came and went for Inglis as Wang dug in to force a tiebreak.
Inglis did ultimately edge out the second set in an 8-6 tiebreak, but the petrol gauge was running on empty and Wang sprinted into a 5-1 lead in the decider, a gap that proved unassailable.
The Australian did break back in the dying stages to make things interesting, but the bird had flown and Wang closed out the stamina-sapping affair 6-3 to advance to a round of 16 match against either Tokyo champion Belinda Bencic or Aliaksandra Sasnovich.