Hsieh wins twice at Malaysian Open

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Defending champion Hsieh Su-Wei won two matches Thursday in advancing to the quarterfinals of the WTA's BMW Malaysia Open tennis tournament.

Weather issues earlier in the week pushed the tournament schedule back and Hsieh saw her first-round match Wednesday suspended by rain after just three games.

She opened her play Thursday by getting past Kurumi Nara 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4 in 2 hours, 42 minutes. Hsieh forced 26 break opportunities on Nara and converted seven of them against five breaks by Nara.

Hsieh, seeded second, was more efficient in her second-round match, beating Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-2 with only one dropped service game. She was still going strong at the end, getting three breaks in the second set.

No. 3-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was on the court little more than an hour in defeating Akgul Amanmuradova 6-3, 6-3. She didn't see a break point, losing just 14 points in nine games serving. Fourth-seeded Ayumi Morita ran past Nudnida Luangnam 6-3, 6-1, winning 60 percent of the points in the match.

Karolina Pliskova ousted fifth-seeded Misaki Doi 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) and Luksika Kumkhum posted an easy 6-2, 6-4 upset of No. 7-seeded Eleni Daniilidou.

Also Thursday, Patricia Mayr-Achleitner beat Wang Qiang 6-3, 6-2; Ashleigh Barty was a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 winner over Zarina Diyas; and Bethanie Mattek-Sands advanced 6-1, 6-4 over Duan Ying-Ying.